The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From The Tree
by what-is-a-social-life
Summary: [Inconsistent updating- see profile for details] Mal doesn't know how to react when she finds out she's pregnant. [In later chapters, features canon up to Descendants 2 and contains spoilers for it, mentions miscarriage, and includes mostly background Jaylos]
1. Discoveries

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: So I really,** _ **really**_ **loved Descendants. Like, I'm in my teens; I shouldn't love this movie as much as I do. But I do. So I kind of wrote a fic.**

* * *

Evie stands just outside the door while Mal slowly unwraps the package Carlos has snagged for her. Carlos and Jay are in the room with Evie, but not as close to the bathroom just off of Mal and Ben's bedroom as the girl.

They've been married for two years, together for eight, and neither has ever brought up the subject of children more than a vague someday. Of course, as the king and queen of Auradon, they're obviously going to have kids, but it's always been vague about _when_.

Of course, _when_ might very well be eight or less months from now, depending on the outcome presented on the innocent-looking yet terrifying white stick.

After she's done her business, she exits the room and places the stick on the table, face-down. Jay comes next to her and takes her hand, while Evie wraps her arms around her and Carlos rests his head on her shoulder.

"Does Ben know?" Evie whispers, breaking the silence as the seconds tick down on the clock.

"I don't want to get his hopes up," Mal replies, but she doesn't mention that she has no idea how he'll react to this. Mal's shaking voice from earlier is the most that she has let her pseudo-siblings know that she is incredibly terrified.

The silence returns with a vengeance as the clock continues to count down until the two minutes are up. Mal makes no move towards the stick.

"Evie, why don't you look," Jay finally says, and it's clearly not a question. Evie reaches for it but Mal's arm reaches out and grabs her wrist.

"I have to do it."

"Are you sure, M?" Evie asks.

"I have to do it," Mal repeats, removing her shaking hand from Evie's wrist. She picks it up, taking great care to keep it face-down, and then takes a deep breath.

That's when the door bursts open.

"Chip said you were sick while I was go-"

Ben stops mid-sentence, his eyes locking on the stick in his wife's hands. Mal closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, then opens them again to see Ben hasn't moved a muscle.

"Mal," he finally whispers, stepping towards the four of them, "Is that-"

"Yes," she says quietly.

"What does it say?"

"I haven't looked yet," Mal replies.

"We'll give you two some space," Evie says, practically dragging Jay and Carlos out of the bedroom and shutting the door behind them.

The silence regains again. Ben walks the rest of the way up to Mal and wraps his arms around her waist, planting a kiss to her head as he does so.

"Are you ready to look?" he asks.

"I am now."

She flips it over. Two lines.

Positive.

 _Pregnant_.

She breaks out of his embrace and sits down on the side of the bed, placing her hand over her still-flat stomach. She isn't looking at him, but she can feel his gaze on her.

He doesn't ask for her to tell him what it says, which she assumes is based on her reaction. Neither of them have said anything yet. The silence is overwhelming, so Mal finally asks, "How do you feel?"

"Shocked. How about you?"

"Honestly? Nauseous."

"Morning sickness or something else?"

"I don't know."

"Listen to your heart."

"I am, and I don't know how to feel," she reveals, finally looking him in the eye. "I want to be happy that there's going to be more of you out there, that we're going to have a baby. But I don't know if I can be a mother, Ben."

"You aren't her, Mal."

"I don't know anything else," she whispered. "I know that I have a dad, but I don't know who the hell he is. The only way I know how to raise a child is the way my mother raised me. If you hadn't asked me to come here, I wouldn't have stood up to her. None of us would have."

"The way our parents raised us isn't the only way to raise a child. You'll know exactly what not to do."

Mal couldn't help it and laughed, burying her face into her husband's shoulder.

"You really think we're cut out for this?" she asks.

"I think so."

The silence returns, but it's a comforting one this time. Ben's hand has joined Mal's on her stomach.

"I have one rule," Mal whispers into her husband's ear.

"What is it?"

"If it's a girl, we do not name her Bertha. Under any circumstances."

Ben laughs, but agrees nonetheless, saying that 'Florian' is not an option, either.

She has no doubt in her mind that Ben will make a great father.

She just hopes that she can be a great mother.

* * *

 **A/N: One-shot for now, but could maybe become a multi-chap.**


	2. Heartbeats

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone that has reviewed, favorite, and/or followed! They make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **So, several people (Okay, all of you) asked for this to become multi-chap, and some of you (Okay, a huge amount of you) even stubbornly followed the story despite me claiming it was complete. Luckily, I also felt that it was somewhat unfinished, so here's chapter two of who knows how many:**

* * *

Ben wakes up as the bed dips, and he sits up groggily. Reaching out somewhat blindly for Mal's side of the bed, he's not at all surprised to find it empty.

"Mal?" he calls into the darkness, already throwing the covers off and walking towards the bathroom.

"Don't come in," he hears her say before she begins to vomit, though considering she hadn't eaten dinner, he's not sure what exactly she could be coughing up.

"Of course I'm going to come in," he sighs, opening the door. As his eyes adjust to the bright light, he is able to make out Mal's purple hair crouched over the toilet, though his wife is just dry heaving. "You should've eaten dinner."

"Very funny," she says around her coughs.

"Mal, you have nothing in you to throw up. C'mon, let's go back to bed."

She sighs and allows him to help her up and back into bed. She burrows her face into his shoulder as his arm wraps itself around her.

"Ben?"

"Yeah?"

"I wanna wait to tell people until we're sure everything's okay. Like, once the miscarriage probability drops significantly."

"Well if you go on skipping dinner, they'll probably start to notice that something's up. And it's not like we can go anywhere. You're pretty easy to spot." Mal groaned.

"Why did you have to be the king, Ben? Why couldn't you have been one of Doug's cousins or something?"

"Hey! Me being the king is the whole reason that you're here in the first place."

"The reason this baby became even a remote possibility."

They both go silent at that, Ben kissing her shoulder in an attempt to say _I love you. I'm sorry you feel awful but I love you and I'm so happy that we're actually going to have a baby together_.

"I love you, too," Mal whispers, snuggling deeper into his arms. He remembers the first night they slept in the same bed together, when he first realized what a cuddler she was. He'd had enough tact not to say it, but he'd laughed at the fact that Maleficent's daughter was that way.

(He'd had to stop his brain's train of thought from trying to figure out why, because deep down he was pretty sure he knew, but he didn't want to even think it.)

* * *

The next morning, Ben and Mal sit patiently in the castle's infirmary while they wait for the obstetrician one of the doctors has summoned to arrive.

Despite the nerves he has, he has to make sure to keep Mal calm. She'd told him a long time ago that they didn't have doctors on the island, so she (And the others native to the Isle) is incredibly nervous around all the medical equipment they have. The first time she'd seen a thermometer, she'd thought it was a torture device. Carlos, having seen it at the same time, had shrieked and run away crying.

Her foot is tapping incessantly up and down. He finally rests his hand on her knee and gives her a bit of a smirk, causing her to blush.

"I'm nervous."

"I can tell."

"What if something's wrong? What if we're not biologically compatible?"

"Mal, your mother is a fairy and your father is a human. I think we've crossed the bridge of 'biological incompatibility.'"

The doctor comes in and gets Mal set up, asking her what he claims are a bunch of routine questions. While some make Ben uncomfortable, he puts on a brave face. The baby will be fine. The doctor just needs all the information he can get.

Mal squirms when the gel is applied to her stomach and the doctor apologizes for the cold, but Ben can barely hear him over the blood pounding in his ears. He repeats his mantra of everything being fine over and over in his head.

"Well, I'd say you're about eight or nine weeks, from the looks of things," the doctor says, "I'll do a more accurate estimate once I factor in the information you gave me. Everything looks good, though."

Mal and Ben breathe out a simultaneous sigh of relief.

Ben expects that to conclude the check-up, but then the doctor flicks a switch and a whooshing sound can be heard, accentuated by small, steady beats.

"What is that?" he asks.

"That's the heartbeat."

His mind stops working for about a second. All he can hear is the sound of his child's heartbeat ringing in his ears.

It's the most beautiful sound he's ever heard in his life.

He turns to Mal and sees tears cascading down her cheeks, her hand coming up to cover her mouth as the tears pour out.

"I'm sorry. These stupid hormones-"

"Mal," Ben interrupts, "It's okay."

"That's our kid, Ben," she says, giving a watery little laugh.

"I know."

It isn't until he and Mal finally break apart from their kiss that he realizes they're alone in the infirmary, with the only sound being Mal's sniffles and their child's heartbeat.

Ben didn't expect such an important thing to be so defined this early. It hits him, then, exactly of what is going to happen to them. Years and years lie ahead of them of dances and tourney and chocolate-chip cookies and heartbreaks and mistakes.

And he smiles

His parents are great parents.

If he can be half of the parents they were to him, he will have done his and Mal's kid (Hopefully the first of several) right.

* * *

 **A/N: There will be at least one more chapter, since I have an idea for it. Stay tuned until then!**


	3. Confessions

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

* * *

Mal stands in front of the floor-length mirror and adjusts her top almost self-consciously. Her bump is still virtually nonexistent, but the skin by her waist is taking on an almost round shape.

Ben comes up behind her and rests his hands on her shoulders, running them across lightly.

"You ready?" he asks.

"To tell everyone? Kind of. I mean, I even kept it a secret from Evie, Jay, and Carlos. That takes effort." He laughs and she laughs back, burying her head into his shoulder.

"Everything's about to change," she whispers.

"It already has."

"Mom, Dad," Ben says, taking Mal's hand under the table, "We have something we would like to say."

"I'm pregnant," Mal blurts before her in-laws have even turned their full attention. Adam turns to Belle and says, "Pay up!"

"You guys bet on this?" Ben asks.

"Mal was skipping dinner almost every night a few weeks ago; we naturally for suspicious," Belle replies, "But I thought she just had a bug. Your father, however, was apparently more perceptive."

"It's the glasses. The give me great powers of perception."

Ben gives Mal a look, one that makes her laugh out loud. He kisses her hand and he leans her head on his shoulder.

Two down, hundreds more to go.

* * *

Before they make the formal announcement to the kingdom, Mal had wanted to tell Evie, Jay, and Carlos. After all, they were her siblings in all but blood, and they'd been asking her ever since she took the test what the result wound up being.

But she needs to make a quick stop first.

Maleficent is kept in the spell jar in a small room off of the main wing. Mal had made a detour on her way to the throne room to stop by there.

Her mother hadn't grown really at all in the past eight years. Fairy Godmother had told her that it was likely she would grow, but after so many years, Mal is beginning to doubt it.

"Hey, Mother," Mal sighs, standing in front of it, "I have something I wanted to show you." Carefully, she takes out the ultrasound picture from the very first appointment and presses it up against the glass. "I'm pregnant. Three months."

For a second, she's convinced that the lizard got the tiniest bit bigger, but it doesn't catch her attention long enough for her to dwell on it.

"I just-" she says, feeling tears falling out of her eyes because _damn these hormones_ , "I don't want to be like you, Mom. I want my child to be happy. I don't want them to be afraid of me or feel like they can't talk to me. I don't know how to do that. What am I supposed to do?"

"It's really not that hard."

Mal spins on her heel to see Evie standing in the doorway, watching Mal with an almost sad smile. Evie walks forward and grabs Mal's hand, dragging her away from her mother and into one of the thousands of alcoves of the castle.

"Okay, M, first of all, how the hell could you not tell us?!" Evie all but shrieks.

"I wanted to wait until the second trimester."

"I respect that. Doc warned me when Doug and I started telling everyone so early that I could still lose the baby, but as the king and queen, you and Ben were very smart. I'll act surprised when you tell me and the boys, though." Mal laughs, wiping away some of her tears.

"I look like a mess, don't I?"

"Yes, you do." Mal laughs again, causing Evie to laugh as well. "I heard what you were telling your mom."

"Oh," Mal murmurs, though she assumed Evie had heard at least some of it. "How do you do it? I mean, Tegan's turned out pretty good so far."

"Tegan's also only six months old."

"And you probably got the best parent out of all of us. At least Grimhilde was proud of you."

"She also told me that the only thing I was good for was a royal housewife, M. And look at me now! A chemistry teacher who designs clothing in her spare time _and_ a wife _and_ a mother. Not a queen or a princess, and not the least bit bothered about it."

Mal gives Evie a look out of the corner of her eye. Evie had been pretty terrified at the beginning of her own pregnancy, too, but then again, she and Doug had _just_ gotten engaged the week before she found out. She had to deal with planning for a baby and for a wedding simultaneously, so Mal hadn't thought much about whether or not she was worried about becoming a mother.

But Evie is a great mother. Mal has seen how Evie dotes on her little girl, how, in her eyes, it's Tegan who is actually the 'fairest of them all.'

If Evie could do that despite her upbringing…

Than Mal's pretty certain she can do that, too.

* * *

 **A/N: At the time that I write this, I plan to continue it. I might not update everyday, but I will definitely continue this a little longer, so stay tuned!**

 **If anyone's curious: I debated whether or not it should be Evie, Jay, or Carlos that became a parent first and therefore was the one to offer reassure to Mal. Because we see Evie and Mal's bond more in the film, I kind of wanted it to be one of the guys, but I'm still trying to decide who I ship the guys with, so I opted for Evie.**

 **Next chapter will be Ben, with him getting the even chapters and Mal the odd (For now.) Until next time!**


	4. Bonding

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

* * *

Ben takes a deep breath and glances at Mal out of the corner of his eye. She's wearing one of the dresses Evie designed for her, a black one that hugs her belly and draws your eye to what he is sure is a baby bump but she says isn't defined enough yet to count as one.

She's kind of hoping the dress says everything when they make the announcement.

He pushes the doors that lead to the throne room open, where the camera crew was waiting to film their annual interview that would air on the daily news.

Mal is still nervous, that he can tell. He doesn't know if she is remembering it, but he certainly remembers when someone (He thinks Audrey) had told her that a villain would never be the queen. It was something that she had brought up at their engagement and wedding as a reason that he should be with someone else.

It is mostly all the same questions as in past years, but this year, when they're jokingly asked, "When's the future heir making their appearance?" Mal says immediately, "June 20."

The laughter stops as Snow White and the camera crews stare at them in shock. Ben and Mal share a look and laugh, turning back the cameras before saying, simultaneously announce to the cameras, "We're pregnant!"

The reaction once it airs is insane.

* * *

A few days later, Mal finally begins to accept Ben calling the curve to her midsection a baby bump. There is definitely something there now, and it's slowly starting to become obvious that she's pregnant. Evie has even started bring over her old maternity clothes that she made Mal's "style." Mal's even started wearing some of it.

They're lying in bed that night, watching some stupid rendition of when the Original Four, as they've been named, first came to Auradon.

"Okay, with the barrier broken, you'd think that they'd actually _go_ to the island to actually get a sense of what it's like there," Mal commentates, shoving a handful of popcorn into her mouth and then saying, mid-chew, "It's ridiculous."

"It also focuses way too much on all of the royals' reactions to your arrival, and I swear to God, if it shows Audrey's and Chad's actors having sex in the aftermath of the tourney game, _I'll_ be the one hogging to toilet bowl tonight," Ben replies. Mal laughs before freezing, ghosting her hand over her belly. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I, just, um, I think I just felt the baby move," she says, almost in awe, "But it was really light so you probably wouldn't be able to feel it. And- just-"

Ben presses his lips to hers, causing her to shut up. He then moves down to her growing bump and whispers, "Hi. Daddy here. What's it like down there?"

He feels Mal laugh more than he does hear her as he presses his ear up against her belly, and nods as if getting a response.

"I see. Mal, the baby has asked you to stop eating saltines, as they find them disgusting."

"Stop making me throw up and I won't have to," she retorts with a grin. Ben moves back up the bed, steals a kiss, and then returns his attention to the simply awful movie in front of them.

"Aw, look, we've gotten to your tourney performance!" Mal coos.

"Love potions are known to cause random musical outbursts, so let's not go there, okay?"

"Whatever you say, Benny-boo."

"Shut up."

* * *

Lonnie had started instituting mandatory girls' night shortly after Tegan was born to get Evie out of the house. That had caused Chad to start instituting guys' night for the guys.

Tonight is one of those nights.

With Mal off at a restaurant with the girls, Ben had gone over to Jay and Carlos's apartment in downtown Arendelle, where Chad, Doug, and a few other guys would be meeting them. Jay and Carlos had decided to room together in what they called 'The Ultimate Bachelor Pad,' though Evie has convinced herself that one or both of them is in a relationship that they won't tell anyone about. The group is still waiting on Flynn and Ryder, triplets alongside Anxelin, to show up.

"How's Mal?" Jay asks, popping open a beer bottle and passing another unopened one to Doug.

"Good. The morning sickness is slowing down, and she's got a lot more energy," Ben replies. He doesn't add that she's also become a sex maniac, but based on the look Doug is giving him, he is _very_ well aware of that due to Evie's pregnancy.

"You had to get food at three AM for her yet?" Chad chuckles.

"No, not yet. Her appetite's changed a lot, though. She can't have alcohol or coffee-"

"Mal before noon with no coffee, after a night of getting up to throw up for long periods of time?" Carlos says incredulously.

"Yes."

"How the hell are you still alive?" Jay adds.

"Duh, he wakes her up after noon," Chad supplies. Practically everyone laughs.

"No, she gets up at her normal time. She's started drinking tea, but she won't eat anything fried because the smell makes her sick, and she's also developed an aversion to strawberries."

"Ben, I hate to break it to you," Jay tells him, clapping him on the shoulder, "But Mal's been replaced by someone that looks and sounds exactly like her, but isn't her."

That earns a chuckle from everyone, even Harry, who is one of the most pessimistic and sarcastic people (Well, half-dwarf) Ben has ever met.

(And to think, Happy's his father.)

"No, it's her all right. Trust me."

No one asks for clarification, though a few of the guys (See: Jay and Carlos) seem both unsettled and annoyed at the way he phrased it.

Flynn and Ryder _finally_ show up and they make their way to Tapper's for their weekly round of drinks (Or maybe two or three, depending on the collective mood). Ben settles into step beside Doug, the only father of the group, who just so happens to be staring almost wistfully at a picture of Tegan.

"Is it hard? Being a father, that is?" Ben asks.

"For me? Yeah. But for you, it'll be different."

"How so?"

"Well, you've been the king for eight years."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"As the king, you have to make decisions about things that affect everyone in Auradon. You're already like a giant dad to all the people here."

"But I don't know those people; it's different."

"It may be different, but it's the real world experience that matters."

Ben supposes that Doug is right. He'd always thought his dad was a pretty good father, and he'd only been king for half the time Ben has been when he became a father.

Maybe he did have the real world experience.

But he didn't really think that mattered.

He's growing more and more confident about this parenting thing by the day.

* * *

 **A/N: The next chapter will be up soon!**

 **If anyone's curious: Anxelin appears in at least one of the** _ **School of Secrets**_ **videos, though her name is not given. She might appear in the novel, which I still haven't read yet, but I don't know. She is the daughter of Rapunzel and Eugene/Flynn, if you could infer that by the names I gave to her brothers/my OCs, Flynn and Ryder.**

 **(Harry and Tegan are also an OCs, though I think you guessed that about Tegan.)**

 **I also made 'downtown Arendelle' a place for two reasons. One: the few maps of Auradon I could find I feel are somewhat hard to make out. Two: Arendelle was literally the first kingdom name to pop into my head.**

 **And two final things to conclude this author's note: The first is that the boys' "usual" bar is influenced by** _ **Wreck-It Ralph**_ **.**

 **The second is… *drumroll please…***

 **THE BABY'S GENDER/NAME DECISION SYSTEM WILL BE REVEALED NEXT CHAPTER!**


	5. Hormones

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **I've decided how the baby's gender and name will work, as some people have started wanting to know more about the future heir to Auradon's throne. So this is what I've decided:**

 **I am going to decide the baby's gender. Whether or not you get to learn it before the big day, well, you'll have to wait and see. You can suggest names via reviews, but I may not chose from any of them. I will not accept any names after chapter** **seven** **, so submit them now if you want to leave any suggestions! (And I might write a prompt for the winner- or winners, middle names, too, folks!- if there is one?) You may submit no more than two names, and I would prefer if they were in one review. Submit away!**

* * *

Sometimes, being the queen of Auradon has its perks. She can park literally anywhere she wants, she always gets free admission (And usually even front row seats) to Jay's tourney games, and she's given free reign over what's sent to the Isle of the Lost, which she considers a huge perk.

There are drawbacks, too. With her purple hair, she already sticks out like a sore thumb, but adding even the tiniest tiara to it is like amplifying the 'LOOK AT ME!' factor by five thousand.

And now that she's pregnant on top of that, well.

Let's just say, she's not really looking forward to Jay's tourney game.

Apparently, the sport that Mal had never even heard of ten years ago isn't just a high school gym credit. There's college teams and even a professional league for tourney with regular games and championships and everything.

While Mal and Evie were getting their degrees in diplomacy and chemistry (With a fashion design minor, Evie always likes to add) respectively, Jay and Carlos had been playing college tourney with Chad and Ben. During their junior year, Carlos had realized his dream of becoming a vet and started studying more and more to get into vet school, but Chad, Ben, and Jay had kept playing. Ben, of course, had been much better at doing well in his classes while he played, but Jay and Chad had barely passed each semester. Tourney was (And still is) a huge part of both of their lives.

No surprise, they'd both been drafted to play professionally. Jay played for the Sherwood Forest Foxes for a little while before being traded to the Arendelle Frost Giants three years ago, while Chad has always been a proud member of the Auradon City Beasts.

Today happens to be the game between the two teams. The Beasts have the home court advantage, but the Frost Giants have Jay, who's their not-so-secret weapon.

Ben and Mal go to the arena with Carlos, Evie, Doug, and Tegan. Ben had thought ahead and secured them a box to watch the match from, which Mal cannot thank him enough for. Her hormones are starting to run amuck, and the last thing she needs is someone with their hands all over her ever-growing bump without her permission.

(Evie actually had to wrestle her for her mother's spell book, which Mal had tried to bring 'just in case.')

They arrive just in time, due to Mal's outburst delaying their usual thirty-minutes-early arrival. Carlos has already hogged the chocolate fountain located in their box, while Evie takes a seat next to Mal.

"You know, when I was pregnant with Tegan, I used the mirror as a weapon a lot," Evie whispers into her ear, "Our wall still has a burn mark on it."

"Never thought of you as one of those girls, E," Mal replies with a breathy laugh.

"Well, M, when your hormones are out of control, it's basically like you don't exist anymore. It's like PMS but worse."

"I believe you," Mal chuckles. Ben slides down into the seat on her other side and takes her hand. "Who do you think will win?" she asks him.

"I honestly don't know," Ben laughs.

"Well, Jay won when the Beasts played the Frost Giants two months ago, but that was also when Jack was on his suspension for the Beasts, and he's almost as good as Jay is," Carlos says.

"He's Tarzan's son; of course he's good at all the agility that tourney requires," Doug replies.

"Attention, fans, and welcome to the rematch of our very own Auradon Beasts and the opposing Arendelle Frost Giants!" the announcer yells. "And the game's begun!"

They happen to have a pretty good view from their box. Jay makes his very first shot and they all erupt into loud cheers. Mal is mid-cheer when there is a flutter in her stomach and she freezes. She's still getting used to the fact that the baby is moving around in her stomach.

"Are you okay?" Ben asks immediately, placing his hand next to hers on her bump.

"Beastie's just proud of Uncle Jay," Mal replies with a smile. It takes Ben a minute to realize what she means, but when he does, he grins.

The game continues, with Jay and Chad both scoring several times and fake intimidate each other. Even though he knows that Jay can't hear him, Carlos literally yells down and says, "STOP FLIRTING AND KICK HIS ASS, JAY!"

After his first few shots go in, the Beasts' goalie has started to recognize Jay's style. So the next time Jay hits it in, it's blocked, even if only barely.

Mal bursts into tears.

"Mal?" Ben asks worriedly. "Mal, are you okay?"

"I just feel so bad for Jay, you know," Mal sobs, "Missing the goal like that."

"Ben?" she hears Evie whisper, "Hormones?"

"It's okay, Mal," Ben says, wrapping his arms tightly around her, "Jay misses the goal a lot. It just means the other team's got a good goalie."

"Well why do they have to be so good, Ben?!" she screams, all sadness replaced with anger. "Why can't he be a bad goalie?!"

"Alright, M, why don't we go to the bathroom?" Evie says quickly, passing Tegan off to Doug. She all but drags Mal away from the box and into the bathroom.

"Oh God, E," Mal groans leaning her head against the bathroom stall. "I couldn't do a thing about what just happened."

"You knew you were all over the place-"

"But couldn't control it!" Mal interrupts.

"You're not in charge of your emotions anymore. It's hard."

"No kidding."

She's starting to warm up to being a parent, but pregnancy?

She's starting to be so done with it.

* * *

 **A/N: Submit away! Chapter 7 is my last thought-through chapter (But there will definitely be at least one more after it!), so there's a chance the naming will re-open (Or maybe even change format) for a chapter or two based on what I decide for Chapter 8.**


	6. Conversations

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **Remember, you can suggest names via reviews, but I may not chose from any of them. I will not accept any names after chapter** **seven** **, so submit them now if you want to leave any suggestions! (And I might write a prompt for the winner if there is one?) You may submit no more than two names, and I would prefer if they were in one review.** **Also, if you are a guest, give something to identify who you are so I can identify who's who!**

* * *

 **I've decided to start responding to reviews here, as well. To everyone who has suggested names and/or mentioned how much they love this story and want to see it continue, a mass THANK YOU! When I wrote the first chapter, I was hesitant to even publish it because I was not expecting all the excitement over it! I mean, in five days, this story has gotten** **83 reviews, 189 followers, and 128 favorites** **, and that's only at the time that I wrote this A/N!**

 **Technobabble1** **: The reason for Mal's hormones being crazy (And Evie's too, actually) is explained in this chapter.**

 **Guest who wanted to know if Mal could be pregnant again in the last chapter** **: You'll have to wait and see.**

 **BasketballQueen** **: Thanks for the additional bit with the names! Whether I use it or not, you'll have to wait and see, but thank you for sending it in regardless!**

* * *

"So, Mal is currently eighteen weeks pregnant," Ben narrates to the video camera that's in his hand, trained on Mal as she poses with her shirt rolled up over her bump. "And she still thinks that these video diaries are stupid." It had taken a lot of coaxing for her to even do that for him.

"They are!" Mal practically shouts, rolling her shirt back down. "What kid wants to watch their parents tell them about their mom's crazy hormones and her cravings while pregnant with them?"

"They're pretty common in Auradon, actually. If I can find mine, I'll show it to you. Of course, mine are most likely on VHS tapes, so I might not be able to play them."

"Lucky for you," Mal teases, taking the camera but keeping it trained on them. "So, Beastie, according to your Aunt Evie, at eighteen weeks you are the size of a bell pepper. And I think she said something about how you're supposed to start kicking soon? I can definitely tell that you're moving around, though. And I've stopped scaring the shit out of your dad whenever you do it, because I'm used to it now."

"We also might be able to find out if you're a boy or a girl at our ultrasound appointment tomorrow," Ben adds, feeling a smile grow on his face. He's been picturing Beastie as both a boy and girl, and he can't decide which one he likes better. He hopes to have both someday, but for right now, Mal says, she just wants to focus on this one.

"In case you haven't noticed, Aunt Evie and Uncle Doug are our pregnancy experts," Mal laughs. "Apparently, I'm also supposed to tell you about my hormones and cravings in these things. I've been banned from any tourney games until after you are born, if that tells you anything about hormone levels."

"I told you not to punch him in the face."

"He blocked Jay's shot!" Mal argues, "And it was a _really_ good shot!"

"She broke the nose of the Corona Suns' goalie," Ben tells the camera, "And afterwards promptly burst into tears over the fact that she had done such a thing, and then couldn't stop smiling when she was banned from any Frost Giant's games until after you're born. She's incredibly hormonal, whether she'll admit it or not."

"Okay, yes, so I'm a little hormonal," Mal sighs, "But I have barely had any cravings."

"You are aware that you ate cereal with marshmallow fluff on top of it for breakfast, right?" Mal elbows him sharply in the side, signs off for the week, and shuts the camera off. He sets it down on the table and wraps his arm around his wife, drawing her in close and pressing a kiss to her exposed shoulder.

"Do you wanna find out if it's a boy or girl?" Mal asks quietly, drawing patterns on his chest lazily. He glances down at her, but sees her eyes are trained fully on her fingers. "I mean, you brought it up in the diary."

"I brought it up because I felt like it was something we needed to address before tomorrow," he replies.

"Well what do you want to do?"

"Nope, you have to go first."

"I don't know. I mean, on the island, you were lucky to find Advil when the period cramps got bad. We didn't even have thermometers, much less ultrasound machines. Dr. Facilier was the closest thing we had to a doctor, despite the fact he was serving as Dragon Hall's principal, and, let's be real, he was a witch doctor. And I know I've tried to really put the island behind me but it's always going to be a part of who I am, you know? Because our past isn't something that can be erased. So, no, I don't want to know until Beastie's born."

"Okay."

"Are you upset about that?"

"I don't care. Evie, however, will be incredibly disappointed that she'll have to throw a 'generic' baby shower." Mal laughs against him and snuggles up closer, her eyelids fluttering shut as she does so.

"Good night, Florian."

"Good night, Bertha."

* * *

The first time that Mal wakes Ben up for food, she's not actually asking him to get it. He's been a light sleeper his whole life- something that he's sure will hinder him when Mal gets to the point in her third trimester when she struggles for hours to just sleep for a few minutes- and so he hears her get up and hears her dial someone on her cell phone.

"What're you doing?" he asks.

"I'm trying to see if anyone's in the kitchen," she replies. He takes the phone from her hand and hangs it up.

"Don't wake anyone else up. I'll go down and make want you want, okay?"

"Okay. I want a ham sandwich with Swiss cheese and mayonnaise. With lettuce and tomatoes. On the sourdough bread. And onions. And mustard. And barbecue chips."

"On the side?"

"No, on the sandwich," Mal says.

(He's not sure if she's being sarcastic or not.)

"On the sandwich?" he clarifies.

"Yes. Do you want me to write it down?"

"Yes, please."

As he reads over her written down list, he notices that she has added marshmallow fluff to the list. Now, he can handle the barbecue chips on the sandwich; Ryder loves to put chips on his sandwiches, anyways. But marshmallow fluff? On a ham sandwich?

"Are you sure you want all this?" he asks carefully.

"Your kid wants it, Ben, not me!" she shouts at the top of her lungs and he takes that as his cue to leave.

He makes sure to leave a note for Chef Lumière that says that he was down in the kitchen, because Lumière runs his kitchen like a well-oiled machine and notices if the smallest thing is moved.

As he hunts around for everything that Mal asked for (And notices worriedly that they are almost out of marshmallow fluff and makes sure to add it to the grocery list), he gets sidetracked and starts thinking about Beastie again.

The doctor said that everything looked great on the ultrasound, and it hadn't mattered that they didn't want to know Beastie's gender because they couldn't get a good look anyways. He had said that Mal's fairy blood was probably the reason that both her hormones and cravings were running high, especially so early, which Ben had decided to accept without hesitation because he couldn't think of any pregnant woman he'd ever been around as bad as Mal. Mal had seemed to accept it, too, especially after Doug had said that Evie was all over the place as well, which Doc had attributed to Doug's dwarf blood. Apparently, there _is_ a side-effect of interspecies relationships.

"You seem dazed and confused. You two have an ultrasound today?" a voice calls. Ben turns around in shock, as it's not Lumière's heavy French accent or Cogsworth's brisk tone that greets him, but rather his father's.

"What are you doing down here?" he asks.

"Midnight snack. I've been reading over some reports for the Charmings, and I do my best at night. I take it that that isn't for you?" Adam replies, nodding to the barbecue chips and marshmallow fluff.

"Mal's hungry. And has developed a strange fondness for marshmallow fluff."

"I feel like your mother had to put mayonnaise on virtually everything for a few weeks."

"Mal always says that the baby wants whatever she's craving, but I hate mayonnaise."

"I know. I bring it up at every possible second."

"How do you still remember that? It was almost twenty-five years ago."

"Ben. I could never forget some of the most amazing months of my life. You'll feel the exact same way if you don't already." He grabs a package of crackers and a can of soda and then exits the room without saying another word.

He finishes the sandwich and takes it up to Mal, but she's fallen asleep, so he puts it in their mini fridge and leaves a note on top of her cell phone to tell her it's there so she can't try and wake anyone outside of their room up again.

(He has to go down and make her another one an hour and a half later, on rye bread this time because she no longer wants sourdough, but he can't help but smile as he spreads the marshmallow fluff across the bread.)

* * *

 **A/N: Next chapter will be up soon! (Likely tomorrow.) Continue to submit your names; I've gotten some great ones so far!**


	7. Babysitting

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **Remember, you can suggest names via reviews, but I may not chose from any of them. I will not accept any names after** **chapter eight is posted** **, so submit them now if you want to leave any suggestions! (And I might write a prompt for the winner or winners- middle names, too, guys- if there is one?) You may submit no more than two names, and I would prefer if they were in one review.** **Also, if you are a guest, please give something to identify who you are!**

 **I've decided to start responding to reviews here, as well. To everyone who has suggested names and/or mentioned how much they love this story and want to see it continue, a mass THANK YOU! When I wrote the first chapter, I was hesitant to even publish it because I was not expecting all the excitement over it! I mean, in six days, this story has gotten** **106 reviews, 214 followers, and 147 favorites** **, and that's only at the time that I wrote this A/N!**

 **Ginnifer (Guest)** **: Don't worry; I get super into name meanings, too! Thanks for the suggestion!**

* * *

Evie slides into their usual booth at Tiana's Palace looking beyond exhausted. Mal gives her a worried look and asks, "Are you okay?"

"Tegan was up all night crying, and then she wouldn't go down for any of her naps today. Doc thinks she has an ear infection, so we left her with him so he can check it out. I can still hear her cries echoing in my ears." Audrey happens to be on Evie's other side and wraps her arms around her, her engagement ring catching the light and almost blinding Mal.

"You sound like you need a night out," Anxelin notes, taking a sip of her cocktail.

"Why do you think I'm here?" Evie asks, ordering a shot. Evelyn Dwarfson. Ordering a shot. Mal decides it's high time she intervenes.

"I think Annie meant just you and Doug. Alone. When was the last time that happened?"

"Let's see, Tegan's eight months old so probably… a year ago?"

Lonnie chokes on her drink.

"You and Doug haven't been on a date in a year?" Jane clarifies.

"It gets harder to spend time private together once you're married and parents. Sorry, Mal, but it's true."

"I know it's true, which is why tomorrow night, Ben and I are going to babysit Tegan at the castle, for the whole entire night, while you two do something _fun_ while we have her."

"You'd do that for us?" Evie asks. Mal simply shrugs.

"Isn't that what sisters do? Plus, we need the experience anyway. Beastie's supposed to show up in four months, but with the fairy blood causing as many problems as it is, I would not be at all surprised if they tried to make an early appearance. Or a late one, for that matter."

"You just became my new best friend."

"I wasn't already?" Mal jokes and Evie smiles.

"Bill's on me tonight, ladies," she says to everyone else.

"Drink up, then," Audrey teases.

* * *

"Uh, Mal?"

"Yeah?" Mal asks, not glancing up from the shipping list for the island in front of her.

"Do you know why Doug's walking towards the castle with what looks suspiciously like a fold-up crib in his arms?"

"Didn't I tell you? We're babysitting Tegan tonight."

"No, you most definitely did not tell me that. For how long?"

"Until Doug and Evie pick her up tomorrow morning."

"All night? Doug said that she has an ear infection and she was up all night sobbing last night. And now we're going to watch her, in the castle, all night long."

"Exactly," Mal says, putting her stuff down. She begins to walk out of the room and towards the castle entrance, Ben making excuses at her heels until she finally turns around with narrowed eyes. "You have roughly four months before I give birth to your child, Benjamin," she says threateningly, "And after that, I expect you to help with said child. So we are going to practice tonight with Tegan. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," Ben replies.

"Good," Mal basically chirps, spinning on her heel and continuing towards the main room.

Evie, Doug, and Tegan are just making their entrance when Mal and Ben arrive. Evie and Doug are dressed up in a nice dress and shirt, respectively, while Tegan is as adorably dressed as ever in a onesie version of Evie's old "Fairest" shirt and little fabric shoes with crowns on them.

"Hi, Tegan," Mal coos, taking the baby into her arms, "Aren't you pretty today?"

"She's pretty everyday," Evie says wistfully.

"Even when she's incredibly sleep-deprived," Doug says in the same tone. Mal and Ben share a look; they can both tell that Evie and Doug need this night _desperately_ , whether they'll admit it or not.

"What're you guys doing tonight?"

"Dinner at Tiana's Palace and then we're probably going to go see a movie or something before we head back home and sleep forever," Evie replies. "Bye, baby girl," she coos to her daughter, tickling her stomach and planting a kiss on her head. Doug does the same before taking Evie's arm and slowly beginning to walk her out. Evie yells, "WAIT!" and comes sprinting back to Ben and Mal.

"Yes, E?"

"She can hold her own bottles, and there's some baby food in the bag with her schedule for eating and changing and her ear drops and ibuprofen and sleep. Don't take her shoes off because they're for crawling. You have to watch her like a hawk because she moves around like crazy. She has extra clothes-"

"We got it, Evie," Ben promises, holding up one of Tegan's arms and having her wave. Of course, as the two of them begin to walk away, Tegan starts to cry, and Mal doesn't have to look behind her to know that Evie and Doug were literally fighting to keep walking away from the castle.

They make their way to Ben and Mal's bedroom and Mal tries to calm Tegan down while Ben struggles to set the crib up. He eventually calls Chip and he's able to do it in about a minute. Mal's laughter causes Tegan to laugh as well and the tears to stop coming out of her eyes rapidly. Evie and/or Doug calls every half hour to check up on her. Mal can't decide whether Evie is always this clingy about her daughter on girls' night or whether Doug's clingy-ness adds to Evie's and makes it incredibly unbearable to speak to them tonight.

The last phone call comes at ten-thirty and there isn't one at eleven, several hours after they've put Tegan to bed. Mal is about to fall asleep on Ben's shoulder.

"I'm so tired," Mal yawns.

"At least she's asleep," Ben replies, "She didn't sleep very much today or yesterday or the night before."

"Well Doc gave her medicine, which seems to be helping. That or she's cried so much she exhausted herself," Mal chuckles, causing Ben to do so as well. "I kind of wish she didn't, though."

"Why? You want her crying all night?"

"Kind of. It'd be closer to having a newborn," Mal replies. "Tegan could already do so much for herself, you know?"

"Yeah, I know," Ben agrees quietly, "But it was still a lot harder than I expected."

"I thought so, too. But I think we can handle it."

"I think we can, too."

* * *

"How was she?" Evie asks, taking Tegan from Ben's arms.

"Great. Really. How was your night? What movie did you see?" Mal asks.

"We wound up going to the Snuggly Duckling and Litwak's Arcade," Evie laughs.

"Well you look well-rested."

"We went to bed at ten forty-five, M. I haven't done that since I was twelve," Evie laughs, and Mal laughs with her. "And it's what, almost noon? I slept for like twelve hours. You can stay awake all night, T, and I'll probably not even be tired," Evie tells her daughter.

"But she was really good. She woke up at midnight and was up until about two-thirty, but other than that, she was great," Ben replies. "It was great having her."

"Well thank you for taking her. C'mon, baby girl, we gotta go wake Daddy up. Can you say goodbye to Uncle Ben and Aunt Mal?" Evie coos, bouncing Tegan up and down a little. The little girl babbles and Evie holds her wrist and has her wave. Mal watches the two walk out and runs her hand up and down her stomach with a smile.

"We got this," she tells Ben.

"I know."

* * *

 **A/N: Remember, this is your** **last chance to submit names!** **The naming will close** **when chapter eight is posted** **. All the suggestions so far have been great!**


	8. Lists

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **I will not be accepting any more names (For now). Thank you for all of the suggestions (I've gotten some great ones!) and I hope you all like the name that I pick out. (I got so many great ones that I actually haven't even chosen the winners yet!)** **P.S: This chapter will include some of the names that have been submitted. However, the winner will not be formally announced until Beastie is born.**

 **I've decided to start responding to reviews here, as well. To everyone who has suggested names and/or mentioned how much they love this story and want to see it continue, a mass THANK YOU! When I wrote the first chapter, I was hesitant to even publish it because I was not expecting all the excitement over it! I mean, in seven days, this story has gotten** **138 reviews, 236 followers, and 165 favorites** **, and that's only at the time that I wrote this A/N!**

 **Demigod-Gallagher-Selected** **: It's totally okay! You are simply one of many who has a ton of ideas/questions about Beastie.**

 **Guest who asked on Chapter One if I will write another Ben x Mal story** **: Firstly, thank you for calling me a good writer! Secondly, I might someday. I have to finish this and then I have a ton of other fanfics I'm working on as well as original stuff and school, so only time will tell. Keep an eye on my profile, though, in case I do.**

 **Also, question: Does anyone happen to know if the Beast has a last name in canon (Descendants or** _ **Beauty and the Beast**_ **)? Or have any suggestions for one if he doesn't?**

* * *

Ben has been expecting for Mal to have a freak out at some point. He figures it will probably be the whole 'holy-fucking-shit- _parents_ -Ben' thing that they both have low-key been feeling ever since they had found out about the pregnancy.

He most definitely did not expected for her to bolt up in bed in the middle of the night and start crying uncontrollably.

"Mal?" he asks worriedly as he sits up slowly to wrap his arms around her. "Mal, are you okay?"

"Ben, we have just a little over three months before this baby comes."

"Okay," Ben says slowly, "What is so troubling about that?"

"There's so much to do! We have to decide on names and baby proof the place and chose where the nursery is going to be and set it up and plan a baby shower and sign up for childbirthing classes and come up with a birth plan and make a registry and- and I don't know but I'm sure there's more!"

Ben presses a chaste kiss to the exposed skin of her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down. Her breathing becomes more regular until finally the crying stops and she sighs, relaxing against him.

"I'm sorry," she says.

"What do you have to be sorry for? Everything you said is true. It's why I let you go all the way through your spiel." Mal gives a little laugh. "Why don't tomorrow we make a game plan for the next few months? We can pull out a calendar and everything." This time, he gets a full laugh out of her and kiss on the lips.

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

* * *

The next morning, as promised, Ben and Mal set themselves up at a table in their bedroom with tea and coffee, as well as the calendar and the list Mal had been scribbling furiously for the past few minutes.

"Alright, what do you deem has to be done before March?" Ben asks.

"Signing up for the childbirth classes, for sure. Evie said that they used the one that the queen of the Southern Isles runs," Mal answers, tapping one of the items on the list with her pen.

"As in Prince Hans's mother?"

"He may be a jerk, but she had fourteen kids, Ben! She knows what she's doing!"

"Alright, we'll talk to her about it at the ball next week," Ben says, writing it in the space adorned with a rose. "What else?"

"I have to talk to Evie about the baby shower, which I have to do soon before she throws a something all girly despite the fact we might have a boy. Not like she would care, of course. She's probably going to give us something pink and frilly for her shower gift."

"I know," Ben laughs. "Alright, what else?"

"We have to start talking about names. Soon."

"What about tonight? We can each make a list and then compare them, and who knows? We might choose a name and then not use it."

"Okay. I'll meet up with you tonight. I have a dress fitting with Evie and then we're going to lunch and shopping. I'll talk to her about the shower then."

"See you then," he says, pressing a kiss to her cheek.

* * *

Ben has an hour between meetings today which he uses to dig out _The Big Book of Names_.

He opens the book to a random page, which happens to be the "E" names. He writes down a couple of them, Emma and Eric among his favorites. Flipping through, he is shocked by the sheer amount of names, ranging from Abigail to Zoe. A name is an identity, turning a group of cells into something more. It's a daunting task for two twenty-four year olds to take on their own.

But he knows they can do it. They've accomplished everything else.

* * *

 **A/N: I know this one's super short, but I wanted you guys to have something for today.**


	9. Movies

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **I will not be accepting any more names (For now). Thank you for all of the suggestions (I've gotten some great ones!) and I hope you all like the name that I pick out. (I got so many great ones that I actually haven't even chosen the winners yet!)**

 **I've decided to start responding to reviews here, as well. To everyone who has suggested names and/or mentioned how much they love this story and want to see it continue, a mass THANK YOU! When I wrote the first chapter, I was hesitant to even publish it because I was not expecting all the excitement over it! I mean, in eight days, this story has gotten** **163 reviews, 257 followers, and 183 favorites** **, and that's only at the time that I wrote this A/N!**

 **Secret Identity** **: Thanks for the last name suggestion! I plan on using it, if that's okay with you?**

* * *

"So, we're up to twenty-three weeks," Ben narrates. Mal poses for him quickly before going into the bathroom to brush her teeth. "Aunt Evie says you're the size of a large mango. I've seen you squirm once through your mom's skin, and I've gotta tell you, Beastie, it was _freaky_ ," she hears him add for the camera. "You can also supposedly hear us out here. I apologize for the snoring, bud. Your mom is like a freight train."

"Hey!" Mal's toothpaste-filled mouth shouts, "I can hear you!"

"I know you can," he says. "She's mellowed out hormone-wise, so _thank you_ , but she still puts marshmallow fluff on her Cheerios. You better like marshmallow fluff, kid, because your mom hates the stuff. And she misses her strawberries."

"You're damn right I do," Mal mutters, sliding into the bed. "I most definitely didn't say a bad word, Beastie. Most definitely not," she adds to both the camera and her stomach. "That's really the only interesting thing to talk about."

"Not your birthday? Your _twenty-fifth_ birthday that was yesterday?"

"Yes, I've lived for a quarter of a century. Give me a fu- freaking prize."

"Will you accept a kiss?"

"When did you become so corny?"

"Mal, please. I've _always_ been this corny. I sang you a song about how in love with you I was."

"Well, I'm gonna turn this off before Beastie has to see any more of this. They must already get it enough. Bye, Beastie."

"Bye, Beastie!" Ben adds. Mal shuts the camera off and sets it down on the bedside table with a smile. She leans in to kiss him when there's a knock on the door and he groans. "Go away!"

"Ben, it's your mother," Belle's voice calls from the other side of the door, "So you better open up. Preferably not butt-naked." Mal stifles a laugh with her hand as he, throwing his wife a dirty look, goes to open the door. "Chip and I managed to find the movies you wanted. Seems like Mrs. Potts's filing system is much more elaborate than I originally realized." She hands over two DVDs and then walks away quickly. Ben shuts the door behind her and turns around to look at Mal.

"What're those?"

"I told you I would find my baby diary," Ben says, putting one of the DVDs into the player.

"Well technically, Belle and Chip found it," she replies teasingly.

"Mal."

"Benjamin."

"You know, when I'm mad at you, I might just start calling you 'Mallory,' so that way you can have the full-name treatment without using your full, legal name."

"Put in the video, Ben," Mal says after she whacks him hard with a pillow. He presses the 'play' button on the remote and the video starts.

The first thing on the DVD is an ultrasound. Mal hears Adam's and Belle's voices talking in the background, but the baby on the ultrasound is what captures Mal's undivided attention. That tiny little fetus in the grainy picture of the ultrasound is her freakishly tall husband lying next to her right now.

"Do you want to know if it's a boy or a girl?" Belle and Adam are asked in the video, snapping Mal back to reality.

"Yes," Belle replies.

"It's a boy," they are told. Adam moves the camera to Belle's face. She looks like she's crying and has her hand over her mouth.

"Are you okay?" Adam asks her, taking her hand.

"I'm great," she promises through tears, "Absolutely great."

The video changes into a string of ones similar to the ones Ben and Mal have been doing so far, though with much less cheeky banter. Mal watches them with little interest, as her husband is what captivates her, so she settles for watching Ben out of the corner of her eye. He is entranced as he hears stories of the havoc he wreaked on his mother during the nine months they'd been as close as mother and son could be.

She realizes, then, what exactly what the point of these videos is. Ben has never seen these before, that much is evident by his in-awe face. It is for their children, about to become parents themselves, to fully understand and appreciate their parents in a way that they could never do before. Whether it be his mother having similar cravings to his wife, or his father sharing their same awe over everything, for one moment, Ben and his parents had the chance to fully understand each other.

Mal thinks that's beautiful.

She also thinks it explains why she doesn't have one.

After Ben has gone to bed, she takes the camera back off the table and angles it on her.

"Hey, Beastie," she whispers quietly so as not to wake up Ben, "It's Mom. I'm hoping that you watch this last once we eventually make this a DVD for you. I wanted to tell you that I love you so much and I haven't even met you yet. If you watched this whole thing, then I hope that's evident. I didn't have the best childhood until I met your father, and I hope that Ben and I gave you a great one. I hope it was nothing like mine. If you don't know that story yet, get me and Aunt Evie and Uncle Jay and Uncle Carlos to tell it to you. It's a pretty important one. I love you."

* * *

 **A/N: Next chapter will be up soon!**


	10. Dates

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **I will not be accepting any more names (For now). Thank you for all of the suggestions (I've gotten some great ones!) and I hope you all like the name that I pick out. (I got so many great ones that I actually haven't even chosen the winners yet!)**

 **I've decided to start responding to reviews here, as well. To everyone who has suggested names and/or mentioned how much they love this story and want to see it continue, a mass THANK YOU! When I wrote the first chapter, I was hesitant to even publish it because I was not expecting all the excitement over it! I mean, in nine days, this story has gotten** **180 reviews, 271 followers, and 191 favorites** **, and that's only at the time that I wrote this A/N!**

 **To the three guests that praised my story so highly (Abigail and the two anonymous ones that said best fanfic they've ever read/Best nine chapters on the site)** **: I squealed when I read those. All of you lovely reviewers/favoriters/followers are turning me into a major narcissist but you also keep me pushing through roadblocks in each chapter in a way I have never done before, so thank you.**

 **To the guest who asked if there would be chapters featuring Beastie growing up and having younger siblings** **: I think so, yes.**

* * *

Ben walks into their shared bedroom and plops the tickets down in front of Mal unceremoniously. She sets her tablet down to pick them up, glancing at them appreciatively.

" _Twinkle Towne_ tickets for tonight," she says, flicking her gaze back up to him, "What's the occasion?"

"You are now six months pregnant, so we are having our final date night until sometime next year when a pregnant Audrey volunteers to watch our sick child for us so we can have a night out and she can get experience in."

"Now, you are saying this to mock what we did for Evie and Doug, right, because Audrey has made it very clear that she plans to wait a while before having children," Mal laughs.

"Yes, I am. It'll be fun! We'll eat anywhere you want to, and we'll go see _Twinkle Towne_. It'll be fun!"

"Pizza Planet sound good to you?"

"It sounds perfect. Wear something nice."

"Whatever, Dork."

"You know it!"

* * *

Mal steps out of the bathroom later in a knee-length black dress that Evie had made back when she was pregnant and had come over in one of Evie's clothing shipments. Her hair is done in a chignon that Evie had taught her to do years ago and she wears the green earrings that Carlos had gotten her for her birthday.

"You look beautiful."

"Thank you," she says, planting a kiss to his cheek. He grabs her hand before she can pull it away from his face.

"Mal?" he asks, staring deeply into her eyes.

"Yeah?"

"Have you always had those gold-"

"Shut up," she interrupts with a laugh, pulling her hand out from under his. He can't help but give her a cocky grin. She makes her way to the door quickly, grabbing her clutch along the way.

"Why're you in such a hurry? It's pizza.

"Beastie's hungry."

"Ya hear that, kid? Not even born yet and your mom's already trying to blame stuff on you."

"Well when they're messing up my whole lifestyle, I can blame them for virtually anything. Including the fact that I really have to pee every twenty minutes. Be right back."

Ben waits patiently for Mal, adjusting his suit jacket to give his hands something to do. While he had just been kidding about parallelling themselves to Evie and Doug, he's still worried that it could very well happen. While Mal is still in her second trimester, the third is right around the corner, when it becomes difficult to stand for too long and a time period when Evie had been self-conscious about leaving the house. While Mal isn't as worried about appearance as Evie is, his own mother, whom had fallen in love with a beast, for Christ's sake, had felt uncomfortable around outsiders, as well.

Mal exits the bathroom and they make their way to the Pizza Planet located in Auradon City. She insists on playing the giant claw game for almost an hour and uses the 'pregnant queen' card to hog the machine until she finally wins one of the little green aliens.

They eat their mediocre pizza in silence, Mal taking everything in. Pizza Planet is known more for the atmosphere than for the quality of their food. Ben's parents had taken him here all the time as a child, but Mal had told him a long time ago that there were no restaurants or arcades on the island. It's the reason why taking her, Evie, Jay, and/or Carlos to Pizza Planet or Litwak's is so entertaining; their eyes light up like they're five and not twenty-five as they spent hundreds of dollars on claw machines and the like.

He hopes that Beastie gets that.

"What're you thinking about?" Mal asks him, popping the last bit of her pizza crust into her mouth.

"You and Beastie; what else?" She gives him a small smile as her hand fits over the top of her belly. Because of her small stature, she looks farther along than just barely six months, but he thinks she still looks beautiful. "Any more thoughts about the name?"

"I kind of want it to have a special meaning, you know?" she says, "But we're not naming it after anyone we know. While I love the name Evelyn, we don't need to give Evie a fat head."

"I completely agree." He checks his watch and stands up hurriedly, throwing some money on table. Mal looks at him in confusion. "The show starts in five minutes."

She chugs one last sip of her drink and bolts with him to the El Capitan theater.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry this was up so much later than usual! I had a bit of writer's block with this one. Next chapter will be up hopefully tomorrow!**


	11. Mothers

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **I will not be accepting any more names (For now). Thank you for all of the suggestions (I've gotten some great ones!) and I hope you all like the name that I pick out. (I got so many great ones that I actually haven't even chosen the winners yet!)**

 **I've decided to start responding to reviews here, as well. To everyone who has suggested names and/or mentioned how much they love this story and want to see it continue, a mass THANK YOU! When I wrote the first chapter, I was hesitant to even publish it because I was not expecting all the excitement over it! I mean, in nine days, this story has gotten** **180 reviews, 271 followers, and 191 favorites** **, and that's only at the time that I wrote this A/N!**

 **To the guest who asked if I could re-label the fic with Belle and the Beast as a couple, as they were for Chapter 9** **: I change the character tags (Outside of Ben and Mal) based on each chapter. I do this because the nature of the first fanfic I posted on here requires me to do that, and I'm just in the habit of it, since I try and update this fanfic and that one at the same time every day. Belle and the Beast/Adam** _ **do,**_ **quite obviously, play a role in this for two reasons. The first is they are the only good role models for parents that Mal has. The second is because they are Ben's role models for the type of marriage he wants to have and the type of parent he wants to be, and parenting is a big part of this; it's why I wrote the first chapter originally. They just happened to be in the tags for Chapter 9 because in Chapter 9 we** _ **do**_ **see them as a couple, albeit briefly and in a video. Belle and the Beast will be in the tags again, whether together or apart, so don't worry.**

 **Abigail** **: I have no idea!**

 **Cheerchic45** **: I'm glad I inspired you to do so! Thank you so much!**

* * *

With Ben visiting some country outside of Auradon that she's already forgotten the name of, Mal decides it's probably best if she gets up and makes her own food when the craving hits at midnight for some lemon-bacon cupcakes. She tries to be absolutely silent on her way down, but she's not sure she succeeds when she crashes into a pillar that sneaks up on her.

When she gets to the castle's kitchens, she's surprised that the lights are still on in the kitchen. Lumière runs a tight ship and she knows that the kitchens are usually shut down no later than eleven.

She's even more surprised when she sees that it's Belle in the kitchen.

"I was expecting to see you at some point," Belle laughs when Mal steps into her view, "Tea?"

"Sure," she says, going into the pantry and digging around for cupcake supplies. When she can't find any, she steps out in confusion, only to notice that Belle is surrounded by them.

"I stress-bake," Belle laughs at Mal's confused expression, "Started while I was pregnant with Ben and never stopped."

"What're you stressed about?" Mal asks quietly, taking the mug Belle offers her and wrapping her hands around it tightly.

"I just always am when either of them go away," Belle says, filling a cupcake pan with liners. "I was glad that you were going to stay, though. Lumière and Cogsworth and all them may be very close to my heart, but it's different, you know? I've known them for decades; they're like my family. You, on the other hand, are my family, but you don't talk to me much. You don't talk to Adam, either."

Mal feels a blush erupting on her cheeks at Belle's words. Despite the fact that she's lived with them for officially three years (But they all know it's really more like five), she still has trouble connecting with Belle and Adam, and she knows it's mostly her fault. All of the villain kids still do it, even the ones that came after the coronation where Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos had proved that there was good in them. While Ben, Chad, Audrey, Jane, Lonnie, Anxelin, and the rest of them quickly came to accept the children of the Isle of the Lost unconditionally, the older generations had still had some trouble with everything. It's the reason Mal hates state dinners with a passion; she feels like, even after eight years, the majority of the dignitaries are judging her for her hair color and background. She may not be Gaston's daughter ( _Thank God_ , she thinks), but she's still a villain's kid, and it makes her hesitant to find out how Belle and Adam view her. Tensions with a mother-in-law she knows is nothing new in the grand scheme of things, but somehow this feels very, very different.

"Mal," Belle tells her, placing her hand on Mal's arm, "I don't judge you at all for your past."

"I know you don't. How could you? You fell in love with Adam when he was a hideous beast. But my past still defines me. It was such a scandal when Ben and I got married. And I remember your reaction when you found out Ben and I were dating. I just-"

She breaks down for the first time in a long time. Belle holds her all night and tells her that it's okay, everything's gonna be okay.

It's the first time she starts to view Belle as her mother as much as Ben's.

* * *

Mal goes over to Doug and Evie's the next day. It's Saturday, so Evie doesn't have to go into teach, and they head out to Big Momma's for an early lunch before Tegan has to take her nap.

She's seen Evie with her daughter before. Mal had been with Evie when she took the test, when her water broke, and waited outside Evie and Doug's bedroom door all night while her best friend was in labor. She was the first person outside of Evie and Doug to meet Tegan, with Jay, Carlos, and Ben quickly being summoned in after her. She'd seen an exhausted Evie look at her daughter with more adoration than Mal had seen anyone show anyone in her whole life. Tegan had become Evie's world the second that Mal had handed her that test with the big blue plus sign, no matter how terrified she was of Doug's reaction or the scandal of having a child out of wedlock.

It makes Mal almost jealous. Had Grimhilde and Cruella felt the same way?

Had Maleficent?

That night, as she wishes Ben is there to wrap his arms around her, she places a hand on her belly and waits for the nudges that she's starting to identify as kicks. When she feels one she can't help but smile.

Evie is living proof you can have a rotten childhood but be a fantastic mother.

Mal hopes she can do the same.

* * *

"So, question," Ben says his first night back as they snuggle into bed, "Do you want to do anything for Mother's Day this year?"

"Ben, it's March; why are you asking about Mother's Day?" she laughs as she switches the TV off.

"It just popped into my head today. The baby won't be here yet, hopefully," he adds, poking Mal's stomach, "But you'll still be pregnant. Do you want to do anything for your first Mother's Day?"

Mal thinks. Mother's Day wasn't a holiday they had on the island, but it's huge in Auradon. Ben treats his mother like a goddess on that day. Mal has never celebrated it herself, aside from a quick hug and, "Happy Mother's Day!" addressed to the mother she was encountering. Sometimes on Mother's Day she goes to her mother's room and sits on the floor in front of her with a bottle of wine she drinks straight from the bottle until Ben finds her and takes her to bed.

"I don't know. I'll tell you close to the day, yeah?" she teases.

"Okay."

All Mal wants to do for Mother's Day right now is do something nice for Belle. She's her mother, too, after all.

* * *

 **A/N: Next chapter will be up soon!**


	12. Nurseries

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **I apologize for yesterday's lack of update. I'm just super busy and, to be perfectly honest, I'm surprised I got a ten-days-in-a-row streak.**

 **I've decided to start responding to reviews here, as well. To everyone who has suggested names and/or mentioned how much they love this story and want to see it continue, a mass THANK YOU! When I wrote the first chapter, I was hesitant to even publish it because I was not expecting all the excitement over it! I mean, in eleven days, this story has gotten** **229 reviews, 317 followers, and 224 favorites** **, and that's only at the time that I wrote this A/N!**

* * *

Mostly due to Evie's (Mostly joking) comment about how the baby could come any day now, Mal has started to freak about having everything ready.

Which is how Ben finds himself surrounded by unassembled baby furniture in the room next door to theirs that they've claimed as the nursery.

"Mal?"

"Yes?"

"How am I supposed to do this all by myself?"

"I can help!"

"Mal."

"Okay, so I can't help. Carlos is good at building stuff, though. And Doug put together most of Tegan's stuff with minimal help. Get one of them- or both of them, for that matter- to help you. In the mean time, can I start painting?" She reaches for one of the rollers, but Ben's hand shoots out and grabs her wrist before she can grab it.

"No fumes," he reminds her.

"Says who?"

"Evie." Mal rolls her eyes at him, but he doesn't remove his hand.

"She's paranoid."

"She's also a _mother_ , and, to me, motherhood trumps paranoia any day."

"Fine. I'll just be in our room, eating chips and watching TV." She sighs for dramatic effect.

"Poor you."

"I know, right?" she calls over her shoulder.

As she's now in her third trimester, even if only barely, her bump has grown and started to slow her down, especially with her small stature. She's not waddling quite yet, but she's definitely walking slower and differently than she has been. After he can no longer hear her footsteps, he pulls out his phone and calls both Carlos and Doug. Doug's watching Tegan while Evie is at a conference, but they both agree that Mal is not only likely to fall asleep watching TV, but it is very much in need of it, meaning her watching Tegan is out of the question, so Doug stays home and Carlos comes over to help assemble everything.

An hour after starting, they still can't figure out which parts of the rocking chair goes where. Mal comes in, half-awake, with food for them, which she sets on the floor.

"Boys?" she calls.

"Yeah?" Ben asks.

"Crib is top priority. Do that first, place."

"Mal, please. Starting with the rocking chair, which is arguably the hardest piece, shows that we can do anything," Carlos says. Mal gives them a look, but then she sighs and shuffles out of the room. Ben thinks she's probably right, of course, but he's not going to be the one to say it to Carlos.

"Should we switch to the crib?" Carlos asks.

"Yeah, probably."

* * *

Mal does not take kindly to the blindfolding.

"This is stupid."

"It creates mystery."

"You painted four walls a pale yellow color that we picked out and assembled furniture that we picked out by looking at the finished product. There, mystery solved, take this stupid thing off."

"Well, since you asked so nicely…" Ben says, undoing the loose knot at the back of her head and catching the dropping blindfold.

Her face is _priceless_.

He, Carlos, Doug, Jay, and Evie have been slaving away all week to make the nursery something special. It's gender neutral for obvious reasons, but he's incredibly proud of what the managed to scrape together.

Mal was not thrilled with all the 'cutesy' linens and such that baby stores had to offer, claiming that they made her skin crawl. He had tried to remind her that it's for the baby and not her, but she'd said she'd still have to look at it. Evie had instead made all the linens, a light green fabric with little crowns on it. Ben's old mobile, with a teapot, clock, and candlestick on it, hangs above the crib. The few clothes that they've gotten are folded into drawers and there's already a box of diapers on the changing table. There are a few stuffed animals scattered here and there, but they're waiting until _after_ the baby shower next week to see what else they need and get it.

"Do you like it?" he asks nervously.

"I love it," she promises, glancing around in awe one last time, her eyes finding the framed photo of them on their wedding day, the tiara being placed on her head for the first time as Ben stands next to her, holding her hand tightly. They are both grinning like idiots, his eyes on her and her eyes slowly watching the crown Belle is lowering onto her head.

"You do?"

"Yes."

* * *

 **A/N: This is the shortest one yet, I'm sorry, but I felt bad about not updating yesterday so here it is!**


	13. Showers

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **Sorry for not updating again yesterday. These last few chapters have taken a little longer for me to get right.**

 **I've decided to start responding to reviews here, as well. To everyone who has suggested names and/or mentioned how much they love this story and want to see it continue, a mass THANK YOU! When I wrote the first chapter, I was hesitant to even publish it because I was not expecting all the excitement over it! I mean, in twelve or so days, this story has gotten** **244 reviews, 339 followers, and 237 favorites** **, and that's only at the time that I wrote this A/N!**

 **Bay (Guest): I live in the US. Because that is on my profile already, that's all I'm going to say.**

 **Secret Identity: I will be using your last name suggestion (Adams); thank you so much for submitting it!**

* * *

Mal feels that fear over the baby shower that she's letting Evie plan for her is justified. Mal had planned Evie's baby shower, but it had been easy because Evie and Doug knew they were having a girl. Evie had also fawned over all of the cutesy baby stuff that Mal has trouble stomaching.

But the second she enters the room that Evie has designated as the party room, she's pleasantly surprised with what Evie has done.

There are no frills or cutesy jungle animals anywhere, which almost makes Mal sigh in relief. All the decorations are lime green and black. There's a small sign hung up over the large bay window that says BEASTIE ADAMS in a fancy font that makes Mal laugh out loud and causes Evie, who's busy fussing with the food on the table, turn around and face her friend.

"Do you like it?"

"Evie, I love it!"

"Good! I was worried it might not be too baby enough but I didn't want it to be super baby-ish because I know-"

Mal throwing her arms around Evie's neck stops the girl in the middle of her tirade.

"You know me and you nailed it; I promise. Now, I smell chocolate, so help a girl out!"

* * *

An hour later, all the guests have arrived, and it's basically girl's night but at the castle with her mother-in-law, presents, and less alcohol than usual. And the shower games. In Mal's not so humble opinion, all the ones that they had played at Evie's shower were stupid, but Evie and Lonnie had both looked so excited weeks earlier at girls' night when talking about the ones they'd chosen for Mal, so she gives in.

The first game that the girls have planned is bobbing for apples… but with baby bottle nipples. It's one of the most hilarious things Mal's ever seen in her life. Everybody except Lonnie manages to get at least one, and Audrey gets five in five minutes, with Anxelin and Mal's three being second place. They play word scrambles and guessing games that Belle (No surprise) and Jane turn out to be really good at. Mal doesn't know who made the cupcakes but they're the best things she's ever eaten and she may or may not eat seven of them by herself.

Then they get to the gifts.

She expects mostly clothing and maybe a few other things, but these people are princesses and she should know so much better by now.

With Evie it _is_ clothes, onesies that she's made herself that work for both genders. She's put slogans on them, too, like "WHERE'S MY CROWN?" Mal even spies one that proudly says "BEASTIE" in bold blue letters.

Belle gives baby books, a combination of board books and paper ones. Some are classic tales and others Mal's never heard of, like _There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly._

Anxelin and Audrey both give baskets filled with bottles, bibs, and pacifiers. Jane gives a bottle drying rack for the kitchen and some more onesies, though the ones she gives are not homemade.

Lonnie is the one who makes the big purchase, gifting them a brown, turquoise, and silver stroller. It's a nice stroller, and Mal initially wants to say that they can't accept it, but then she remembers that she had bought Tegan's stroller and Evie had said nothing about it other than enormous thanks.

Despite her reservations, the party isn't as tiresome as she had been expecting.

* * *

Ben helps her sort through everything that night. While the baby shower itself had been small, there had been a lot of people from Auradon who had gifted things as well, including Carlos, Jay, and Chad.

"Harry says this is from all the dwarves and their kids, excluding Doug, whose name I guess is tacked onto Evie's?" Ben says as he reads the cards on one of the presents, and inside is a plethora of items.

"What'd we get?"

"Blankets, onesies, bottles," he replies, sifting through the box, "And socks."

"What're we going to do with some of this? I feel like we've got enough baby bottles to feed a small army of babies. Last time I checked, there was only one baby."

"We live in a big place. It wouldn't hurt to have a lot of bottles around."

"Not really my point, Ben."

"Sorry. Oh, Dad wanted me to tell you that the contractors are coming Monday to start talking about adding the kitchenette to our room."

"And about putting the door in the wall?"

"Are you sure we should do that? Yeah, it'll be nice when the kid's up half that night, but no teenager wants to share a door with their parents. And what if we have another kid?"

"We can always move Beastie out of the nursery, you know," Mal chuckles.

"Not really my point, Mal." She smiles at him as he says her words back to her.

"Ben?"

"Yeah?"

"What if the baby comes early?"

"Then we'll get to be parents longer than expected."

"But what if we're not ready?"

"Didn't you just say we have enough to feed a small baby army?"

"What if we're not ready to be parents?"

Ben is quiet for a minute before saying, "I don't think anyone ever really is."

"So we'll be okay?"

"I think we will be."

* * *

 **A/N: Next chapter will be up soon!**


	14. Gifts

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **I'm sorry that these chapters have become more every-other-day than every day, but things have gotten crazy (Well,** _ **crazier**_ **) in my house.**

 **I've decided to start responding to reviews here, as well. To everyone who has suggested names and/or mentioned how much they love this story and want to see it continue, a mass THANK YOU! When I wrote the first chapter, I was hesitant to even publish it because I was not expecting all the excitement over it!**

 **Bay (All reviews)** **: First one- You weren't being rude! I'm so sorry if I made you feel that way! I was trying to find a way to phrase it and I'm sorry if the way I did made you feel that way! Second one- I called this fic hurt/comfort more for the comfort part, especially in regards to the first chapter. Third one- as for the account, I don't know why it would be telling you that. Keep trying, though!**

 **The guest who asked about Mal's Mother's Day gift to Belle** **: Keep reading!**

* * *

Ben loves his wife dearly. His love borders on cliché; that's how much he loves her.

But with her newfound inability to sleep due to Beastie being, as Mal so lovingly put it, 'a little shit,' he's starting to go insane.

He's a light sleeper, and he predicted this months ago. Beastie has their own sleep schedule and likes to alert Mal to this by kicking the crap out of her. Despite being just barely eight months along, her small stature makes her bump seen even bigger- and therefore more uncomfortable to lie down with. Her lack of sleep is making her crankier than usual, and adding in the hormones on top of it is just icing on the cake.

"It's getting worse and worse by the day," he tells his father as he joins him for his late night reading. Ben thinks if he lets Mal fall asleep first, he'll have a better chance of sleeping himself.

"I remember vividly. Your mom's a light sleeper, too, so it was ten times worse for her. Of course, once I'm asleep, I could sleep through the end of the world, so I got much more of the crankiness than you probably get. Just remember that it will all be over soon."

"And then I get to have a kid waking me up at all hours of the night. Sleep is, quite obviously, not in my cards for the next eighteen years."

"We still live under the same roof, Ben. Sleep isn't in your cards for what will most likely turn out to be the rest of your life."

Ben groans loudly.

* * *

He wakes up a few mornings later to an empty bed. Considering he's always awake at the same time as her, he's almost instantly worried.

"Mal?" he calls.

"Bathroom!" he hears her respond. He trudges over to find her brushing her teeth over the sink, though still pajama-clad. That's good. He's not too slow on the uptake.

"How'd you manage to get off the bed without me noticing? You're not exactly nimble on your feet anymore," he jokes, wrapping his arms around her from behind.

"You're more exhausted than you've ever been in your life. So I let you sleep a little."

"You need more sleep than I do."

"Tell that to Beastie," Mal grumbles, spitting her toothpaste out. Ben turns her around and then crouches down to her stomach.

"Listen up, Beastie. Daddy is always awake whenever Mommy's awake. And Mommy barely sleeps. So you need to keep it down there, yeah? Learn to entertain yourself. You got that?" He waits to feel the kick against his hand before straightening up. "Beastie and I have come to an agreement."

"I'm holding you to that," she says to her stomach. "Alright, let me just do one last thing."

"Mom and Dad won't care if you're still in your pjs at breakfast, you know."

"I know. I'm getting my Mother's Day gift for Belle."

Ben freezes.

"It's Mother's Day?"

"Yeah."

"I slept through my alarm, didn't I?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I was going to do something special for you!"

"Ben, I'm not due for another month. Therefore, not a mother yet. But Belle is, and I actually did something for her this year."

"By yourself?"

"Yes, by myself. I'm pregnant, not an invalid."

"I know; I know! Don't maim me."

Mal rolls her eyes.

* * *

Ben watches his mother's face as she looks through the book Mal had given her. He doesn't know how long she's been working on it, but it seems to be a while, as it's full of pictures of him at different ages.

He's able to read the writing on the last page from his spot by his mom, and he smiles.

 _Thank you for raising such a great guy. Thank you for letting me steal him away. Thank you for accepting me into your family. I hope Beastie is as lucky as Ben and I have been to have you in his life._

 _All my love,_

 _Mal_

* * *

 **A/N: These last few chapters have been** _ **so short!**_ **I apologize profoundly. I will try and update tomorrow, but it will definitely be up at some point in the near future.**


	15. Stress

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **This chapter will include some of the names that have been submitted. However, the winner will not be formally announced until Beastie is born.**

 **I've decided to start responding to reviews here, as well. To everyone who has suggested names and/or mentioned how much they love this story and want to see it continue, a mass THANK YOU! When I wrote the first chapter, I was hesitant to even publish it because I was not expecting all the excitement over it!**

* * *

Mal is so done with being pregnant, and she hasn't even hit her due date yet.

She tries talking about it with Evie, but Tegan came three weeks early, so Evie was settling into motherhood two weeks from her due date. (Evie's water broke after they cut the cake at her wedding reception. It was quite comical.) She's sympathetic, though, especially since she shares the plight of being short, but it's not the same. Ben had come late, which makes her hesitant to talk with Belle, as complaining doesn't seem like it will really get her anywhere.

This makes Jay and Carlos her prime ranting targets.

She still has her unfortunate ban from attending any of Jay's games until after Beastie's born, but she's still allowed to attend Chad's. Mal uses Ben's trip to find food for her as her chance to complain to Carlos, who looks like he would rather be _anywhere else_ at that moment in time. He can handle her mother in dragon form, but a hormonal pregnant woman makes him want to run for the hills.

It almost makes her laugh.

"-And now I have to go to the bathroom. Again."

"I'm sorry, Mal," Carlos says, his glazed-over eyes focused on the field, with him seeming to be on autopilot with his responses.

"Will you help me stand up?"

"I'm sorry, Mal."

Yep. Barely listening.

"Carlos," she says, snapping her fingers in front of his face. His focus comes back and he turns to face her, his eyes holding a worried glint in them.

"If I have to hear any more about stretch marks, I swear, Mal-"

"I just need you to pull me up so I can go to the bathroom, Carlos. I'll find my next unsuspecting victim when I come back."

"Oh thank _God_ ," he sighs, standing up and yanking on her hands to allow her to stand up. "I don't care how cute Beastie winds up being; you and Ben _cannot_ have more children. You're a hormonal terror."

"Yeah, but watching you and Jay squirm is never not fun."

* * *

"What about… Dove?"

"Like the bird?" Ben chuckles, but replies, "I guess you could look at it that way."

"Dove Adams," Mal says, testing how the name sounds. "Write it down. Even though I'm pretty sure that doves symbolize peace and any child of ours will not be the slightest bit peaceful, I like it."

"Me, too. Boys' name, now?"

"Uh-huh."

Mal and Ben are sitting on the couch in one of the main rooms of the castle. Ben is ever-so-kindly giving her a foot massage, with the baby name book balanced on her shins. She balances a tub of ice cream on her stomach, eating it happily.

"What about… Ian?"

"I don't know. I don't think 'Ian Adams' has the greatest ring to it. What's it mean?"

"According to this, 'God is Gracious,' but Evie says that their book and our book have conflicting meanings and origins for some of the names in here. Similar, but still conflicting," he responds. Mal nods thoughtfully, licking her spoon. "Want me to write it down?"

"Don't think so. I'm not really religious, and I don't want the name to have 'God' in its meaning."

"That will knock off a lot of names."

"I know."

"But you also know that you don't have to pick a name because of its meaning."

"I know."

"Okay then," he sighs. "What about Benjamin?"

"No."

"Hear me out," he says, though she's pretty sure he's joking. Like 51% sure.

"No, Ben. We agreed to not name Beastie after anyone we know. First or middle name. You said yourself that a name is an identity. I don't want the baby to have to live in anyone else's shadow. Like-" She stops herself before she can say anything else, though she thinks that Ben seems to be able to finish her sentence: _Like I did._ She and her mother share a name, after all, something that's haunted her even before she was aware that she was being haunted.

"I'm sorry," he says, taking his hand off of her foot to grasp her hand. "I know names are a bit of a sore subject."

"You can say that again," she sighs, running a hand through her hair. "God, this is so _stressful_. I kind of wish the kid just came with their own damn name."

"No, you don't."

"No, I don't," she agrees. "Look, we've got another week until the due date, and everything else is done. Let's just enjoy one of our last days before we become parents, yeah?"

"I like that idea," he says, throwing the book and list down on the coffee table with a thud. "You wanna go for a walk? That supposedly starts up labor."

"You been talking to Evie?"

"Just a bit."

"I like that idea. Let me just empty my bladder for the _twelfth time today_ ," she says, swinging her legs off of Ben's lap and using the coffee table to help her up. "Beastie doesn't listen to your speeches as well as you think they do."

"Preposterous."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Ben laughs, standing up as well. "I bet you Beastie will _only_ listen to me when they're older."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," she replies, making her way to the bathroom. "You're going to be so wrapped around their finger that you'll be too busy catering to their every whim to discipline them."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

* * *

Mal tosses and turns in bed, trying to get comfortable with her thirty-five extra pounds on her midsection.

And then she has to go and wet herself. Juuust great.

Sighing, she stands up and starts to really wish she'd taken Evie's suggestion of wearing sanitary pads.

"Ben?"

"Yeah?" he says groggily.

"Where's the clean laundry?"

"Basket by the door," he tells her, sounding more awake, and she nods, even if he likely can't see her, and slowly stands up. "If you need to turn the light on, that's fine."

"Okay. Let me just go to the bathroom first."

When she gets to the bathroom, though, and doubles over in pain when her stomach clenches tightly, something clicks.

"Hey, Ben?"

"Yeah?"

"I think my water just broke."

* * *

 **A/N: You all must love me for that. Update will be either tomorrow or the day after.**


	16. Parents

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **I've decided to start responding to reviews here, as well. To everyone who has suggested names and/or mentioned how much they love this story and want to see it continue, a mass THANK YOU! When I wrote the first chapter, I was hesitant to even publish it because I was not expecting all the excitement over it!**

 **Bethany Tucker** **: The baby may or may not be a boy, as they decided not to find out the gender. They use the nickname "Beastie" to refer to the baby (With Evie even going so far as to put BEASTIE ADAMS on her baby shower sign), stemming from Ben's father's old form, and they try to use they/their/etc. when referring to them. If I didn't make that clear before hand, I apologize! But even if they had been told the baby was a boy, ultrasounds can be misread, and resident-pregnancy-expert Evie would've told them to be prepared, just in case.**

 **Bay:** **Tell me what your account name is and I will!**

 **And now, the update you've all been waiting for...**

* * *

Mal's words run through his mind and he freezes.

 _Her water just broke. She's in labor. The baby's literally coming_ right now.

Well, not right that second. (He hopes.) Mal and Evie have told him multiple times that labor takes hours, sometimes even days. So, unless Beastie's in a real hurry, they've got a while yet.

If she's even in labor. She'd thought she'd just wet herself. Maybe that's all that had happened.

Mal exits the bathroom, one of her arms wrapped around her bump. She looks utterly terrified, but also like she's trying not to show just how terrified.

"Neither of us is going to panic," she says calmly- too calmly, in his opinion.

"Okay."

"I will call the doctor. You try and get some sleep."

"Yeah, because I can obviously sleep now."

He holds her hand as she talks to the doctor, running soothing half-circles over it with his thumb. He watches as her face contorts in pain and that's when he knows that this _has_ to be it. She'd been having those Braxton-Hicks contraction things for weeks, and she'd always looked, at most, mildly uncomfortable. This is very, very different.

She hangs up the phone and her face has gone from slightly panicked- whether she would admit it or not- to honest, unashamed panic.

"He wants me to start going to the infirmary. He'll be here in ten minutes."

"Okay," he says, standing up and pulling on clothes. Mal hasn't moved from the bed, her fingers instinctively clutching the covers in a death grip. "Mal, c'mon. Unless you want me to redirect him here."

"I can't do it. I can't be a mom."

"Mal," he tells her sincerely, "I know you can do it."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

* * *

An hour later, Mal is dilated one centimeter more than she had been when the doctor had first looked her over. He feels like that's progress, but Mal does not seem as content over the fact that she's dilated two centimeters.

She's also in a lot of pain, which he can do nothing about.

"Make it stop," she groans.

"You said yourself, these things take time."

"Well, right now I'm in a lot of pain and I'm wishing I'd gotten more sleep. What time is it?"

Ben looks at his watch.

"10:29."

"Have we told anyone I'm in labor?"

Ben hesitates.

"I don't think so."

Ben spends the next half hour waking up his parents to alert them, as well as calling the short list of people he's supposed to call: Evie and Doug, Jay, Carlos, Chad, Audrey, Jane. Chad, Audrey, and Jane simply ask to be kept updated, but Evie, Jay, and Carlos say they're on their way over.

After that, everything passes by in a blur for him, and he knows they must be even more chaotic for her. Mal swears and screams, he thinks she's given an epidural but he's not sure, and then suddenly she goes from five centimeters to ten in what can't be a very long stretch of time, and he doesn't think that seems even _possible_ , but hey.

Mal pushes- and swears and screams more as she does so. He takes it like a gentleman, nodding and trying not to focus on the fact that he's pretty sure she broke his hand.

And then something happens. The doctor starts talking about cords and heart rate and oxygen and Ben hopes that Mal is in too much pain to notice what's going on. He has to strain to hear over the blood pounding in his ears.

This isn't happening. Not after Mal's childhood, not after everything she's gone through these past nine months to get to this point. They can't have lost Beastie before they even met.

But then Beastie's out, and they start to cry, and it's, quite literally, the most beautiful sound he's ever heard in his whole damn life.

Mal falls back against the bed, sighing. There is sweat plastered to her forehead and her purple hair looks like a wet rag on the white pillow, but she looks beautiful. Ben glances at the clock in the room. 12:01 AM on June 18, two days before Beastie was supposed to make their appearance, is the day he becomes a father.

He becomes a father on Father's Day. How fitting.

"Hey, Mal?"

"Yeah?" She sounds exhausted, and she's not even looking at him, she's looking at the crying Beastie, all red and wrinkly, that she's waiting for patiently.

"Thanks for making me a father."

She gives him a small smile and opens her mouth to say something, but then the nurse walks to her and hands her the bundle in the pink blanket.

A girl. They have a daughter.

"Hi," Mal cooes to the little girl in their arms, "We're very excited to meet you."

"Aria," he blurts out. It's a name he'd liked from the start but had never brought up, afraid that 'Aria Adams' didn't sound quite right. But now, now it sounds perfect. "It's a type of song, in an opera. And my first big romantic gesture was to sing to you." Mal gives a small laugh, glancing at their little girl.

"Aria," she agrees. "And… Rose. For the middle name."

"Is that somehow tying into my parents?"

"Not intentionally, but I like it. Aria Rose Adams."

"It's perfect," he agrees.

Aria Rose Adams.

He can't think of anything more perfect.

* * *

 **A/N: HUGE thanks to the guest who suggested 'Aria,'** **BasketballQueen** **for her idea of something happening to Beastie (I hope I did it justice!),** **Keegan, Wolfslick, and flamelily274** **for suggesting 'Rose' (Even as a middle name), and to** **Secret Identity** **for suggesting 'Adams' as their last name. I owe you all a ton.**

 **Now, this story isn't over. It's just beginning. My idea for this story wasn't just about Mal going through pregnancy, but watching her deal with parenthood. That's where this story is leading.**

 **And because it's not over, don't lose hope if your name wasn't picked. Mal and Ben could always have more kids.**


	17. Beginnings

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **RedxHandedxJill** **: I considered doing that for Ben, since I did that for Doug, Evie, and Tegan, but I asked you guys for ideas and** **Secret Identity** **suggested "Adams," which I really liked and decided to go with.**

 **labass:** **I'm not sure yet.**

 **Guest who asked if I could do a story where Belle is pregnant with Ben's sibling** **: While I do agree that would be a cute story, I do not think I'm going to do a whole story dedicated to it. I might possibly include it as background in this, but even then I think that's a slim possibility, especially since in canon Ben doesn't have siblings and at this point in the timeline Belle is at least in her late forties, which would make having a baby incredibly difficult.**

 **Guest who asked about if we would see Mal pregnant with Aria's siblings, if she has any** **: If Mal does get pregnant again, it would be more background; the pregnancy would not be followed as closely as her first, but it would still be an important part of the story.**

* * *

Aria is cleared from the infirmary later that day. By that point, she's met everyone, Mal's fed her twice, and she's been poked and prodded more than Mal had wanted to see. Ben had gotten called away to make the Big Announcement, with implied capital letters, so Evie and Tegan are helping her get Aria set-up.

"You have to be really careful with Aria, okay, sweetie?" Evie tells Tegan. Tegan doesn't show any indication of understanding, but Evie doesn't seem to care.

"Has she started talking yet?" Mal asks, slowly lowering the sleeping Aria into her crib, which they'd moved to their room for the first couple weeks. Mal's theory is to make the walk shortest when she's up the most, and add walking distance during more sleep.

"I would be throwing a _party_ if she'd started talking."

"Well, her first birthday's what, next week? You might very well be."

"True, true," Evie laughs, setting Tegan down inside the nest of pillows she's made her from Mal and Ben's bed and putting the TV on.

"Have you two started talking about more kids?"

Evie doesn't say anything.

"Really?" Mal asks with a raised eyebrow, "Nothing? Don't you want like eight kids?"

"Aren't you exhausted? You just had a baby."

"Over twelve hours ago. I'm only _mildly_ exhausted."

"Uh-huh. Go get some sleep; I'll come get you if she's hungry, but I can handle everything else."

"You sure?"

"Go! But use a guest room. I don't need you waking up whenever she does and then hovering over me. A is in good hands."

"Already nicknamed her, huh, E?"

"Just a bit. Go! You look like a zombie."

Mal rolls her eyes, but follows Evie's orders. That girl is scary when she wants to be.

* * *

Three days into being parents, she and Ben have finally gotten a schedule synced as to who gets up when, but that doesn't make it any easier.

It may be Mal's turn, but Ben still wakes up, and he mumbles groggily to her, "We thought putting the crib in here was a good idea why?"

"I don't know. Ask the me who actually got enough sleep."

"We decided to move the crib in here like two days before she was born. You haven't gotten the right amount of sleep since like February."

"Shut up."

* * *

Aria is formally introduced to the rest of the world when she is five days old, on her coronation day. In the past, children were formally introduced on their coronation day, but usually, the coronation doubled with a baptism.

Mal had caused quite the uproar when she'd said she didn't want Aria to be baptized.

But Ben had stood by her, and so Mal had decided to compromise. Of course, eliminating the Christianity from a baptism really only left Aria wearing the long white gown, but it had seemed to calm some people down, so.

Evie had volunteered to make the christening gown, since she'd made Tegan's, but Belle had kept Ben's just for this, so that's what Aria is wearing. Considering Aria is only six and a half pounds and Ben was almost ten, Evie had had to make alterations to it, but it turned out pretty well.

"You ready, Aria?" she whispers as she gets her dressed. "I promise that being a princess isn't as scary as it seems." She knows that her five day old daughter can't possibly understand what's she's saying, but she still feels like Aria does.

"Showtime," Ben says, standing in the doorway. Mal picks Aria up and holds her carefully.

"I know that they're basically just putting a tiara on her head, but still. It seems like a lot of pressure for someone who hasn't even been alive for a week yet."

"Hey. She's got sixteen years before she has to worry about that."

"I know. Still seems like a lot, though."

"It can be."

Neither of them say anything as they walk into the coronation hall with Aria in Mal's arms. Belle and Adam stand next to Fairy Godmother on the dias. All of their friends stand in the front row.

"We would like to formally present to the United States of Auradon, Aria Rose Adams," Ben says strongly. Everyone applauds solemnly.

"As her parents, we promise to raise her to be a loyal citizen of Auradon and a worthy leader."

Fairy Godmother puts a small tiara on Aria's head and touches the wand to both of her shoulders.

"Princess Aria, welcome to Auradon."


	18. Fathers

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **Booklover5434** **: You'll find out very soon!**

 **Jenna and beastxbelle** **: I know the potential that you see in it, but I do not think I will do it as anything more than maybe a found pregnancy test misunderstanding or an April Fool's Day joke, if I use it at all. Jenna, if you are the same guest who gave the suggestion, then thank you for giving it, but I don't think I will use it.**

 **Anna:** **You'll have to wait and see.**

 **Technobabble** **: Evie's was a little easier than Mal's, but not a ton, because it was a dwarf vs. fairy thing. On top of that, however, there is a little more to it.**

 **The guest who asked about what's up with Evie :** **(Answering separately from Technobabble because of question wording) She avoided answering because she has her own stuff going on that she's too nice to dump on a brand new mother, even if it is her best friend.**

 **Brendanguest** **: They will be sprinkled throughout. Most of the known descendants are very close with Ben and Mal, so we'll hear a lot about them even if we don't see them.**

* * *

When Aria is six weeks old, Ben tells Mal to take a break for the night and go to her first girls' night in three months. He promises that Aria is incredibly capable hands and offers to give her a demonstration, but she tells him that she trusts him.

And she only drags her feet for twenty minutes. He'd expected at least an hour and is very proud of himself for having her complete faith _and_ being able to get her out of the house.

Aria is asleep when she leaves, so Ben takes the opportunity to catch up on some reports that he's been meaning to read for the past six weeks, but quite obviously hasn't gotten around to. When he gets a picture from Anxelin of Audrey and Mal playing Hero's Duty at Litwak's (As well as a statement saying the girls have been keeping Mal busy to avoid her calling him every five minutes), he's reminded that one of the things Mal had asked him to do was try and find a sitter for Audrey and Ryder's wedding the next weekend.

And before he can even type in the name of the website that Evie and Doug use, Aria starts to cry.

"C'mere, baby girl," he says, lifting her up. Her head feels a little warmer than he's used to and he starts digging around for the thermometer in their medicine cabinet. He brandishes it proudly and whispers, "Sorry," to her before sticking it in her ear, causing her to thrash against him and cry harder.

It beeps and he takes it out, looking at it: 99.5, a fever.

And then he panics.

His parents are having date night and he doesn't want to bother them. Mal or Evie is completely out of the question, because Mal will come rushing home and Evie will tell Mal, causing her to come rushing home. He could ask one of the servants, but Lumière is on vacation, Chip isn't even engaged to his girlfriend of twelve years yet, and he'd dismissed Cogsworth for the night.

That leaves him with one option.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Doug? I really, really, _really_ need your help."

* * *

Doug is there within the hour. In that time Aria's fever's gone to 99.8, and no, he has most definitely _not_ been checking it every ten minutes.

"You didn't say much over the phone."

"Did you tell Jay and Carlos that you were coming to help me?"

"No, why? I told them that the sitter had to leave early because I had a feeling your pride is involved in this. Am I right?"

"A little. And I called you over here because Aria has a fever but I can't tell Mal that because then she'll be over here in two minutes flat but I told her to go out tonight and have fun and not to worry because I would make sure everything stayed under control."

"But?"

"But Aria has a fever and I don't want to alarm her."

"Ben, if Aria has a fever, Mal _has_ to know."

Ben makes a face and Doug sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Okay, how high is the fever?"

"99.8, last time I checked."

"Which was when?"

"About five minutes ago."

"Okay. There's nothing you can do right now other then keep her cool. And tell Mal what's going on."

"Not an option."

Doug is still there when Mal gets home because Doug had told Evie, the little snitch. He volunteers to walk Doug out while Mal tries to feed Aria.

"Thanks for coming, Doug," Ben tells him, "I was really panicked."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I was with Tegan one of the first times she got sick and didn't want to tell Evie, either. I called my mom before I did anything else, and even then I couldn't find the courage to tell Evie. My mom had to."

Ben gives him a small smile. Sometimes he feels he's only close with Doug because of Mal's friendship with Evie, but other times, in moments like this, he knows Doug is as much his friend as Chad or Jay or Carlos.

* * *

 **A/N: This is** _ **so short**_ **but I still like it. Next update coming soon!**


	19. Eyes

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **Bay** **: I found your profile, but I don't think the story was loaded onto it yet when I checked. I'll check again later; I promise!**

 **Guest who asked about who Audrey was dating** **: While I know (Think, really) the Audrey/Jay pairing is popular, it has not been confirmed as canon (I'm pretty sure that Audrey and Chad were still dating at the end of the movie!) and, on top of that, I don't ship it, so I chose to leave it open in the beginning about who, exactly, Audrey was engaged to, eventually going with my OC, Ryder, one of Rapunzel and Eugene/Flynn's triplets. As for Jay and Carlos, they both claim to be single, although Evie is convinced at least one of them is dating somebody and won't admit it.**

 **descendant gal** **: It will all occur in this fanfic. I already know how it will end, and I won't stop until I get there.**

 **Fandomqueen104** **: I hope you see this because this is how I reply to reviews! (There is another way, I think, but I'm not sure how it works.) According to my email, you** _ **did**_ **follow my story by either checking the little box down by the review box or by pressing the follow/favorite button by the summary. You post a story by going into your account, submitting a doc to the doc manager, agreeing to the terms and conditions, and then selecting to publish a new story. Hope that helps!**

 **Ashley:** **This story alternates between Ben and Mal's POV. If you mean will I re-write Mal's chapters in Ben's POV, no, I don't think I will.**

 **Guest who was talking about baptisms** **: I was raised Episcopalian and was baptized as an infant, which is what I based that part from, and then I had Confirmation to "accept my baptism," according to its description, but then again my parents say that Catholics and Episcopalians have very similar traditions, so that might explain something.**

 **That was a lot of reviews to respond to, but I did leave you guys hanging for a few days as I wrote this chapter. Sorry about that!**

* * *

Audrey Phillips and Ryder Fitzherbert had hated each other for the first seventeen years of their lives, Mal is told.

At first, it was small things. When they were three, it was because Audrey was a girl and Ryder was a boy. When they were six, it was because Audrey could play tourney just as well as Ryder could, even though Ryder really wasn't (And still isn't) that good. When they were nine, it was because Ryder beat Audrey in the final round of the spelling bee. When they were eleven, it was because Audrey was taller than Ryder. When they were thirteen, Audrey had tormented Ryder _endlessly_ for his unfortunate voice cracks while his brother got away unscathed. When Ryder broke the heart of Chad's younger sister when they were fifteen, he'd crossed a line in Audrey's book. By the time they were sixteen, Audrey was on record for saying that Ryder was too naïve for his own good, and Ryder had called Audrey a vain bitch who only cared about herself and her reputation. And neither would admit it, of course, but everyone knew that they were both right.

By the time Ryder had joined Audrey in the realm of being seventeen years old, something had changed between them, and this is the part of the story where Mal always reminds the teller that she was there for this part, but she always hears it anyway.

Because when they were seventeen, Audrey and Ryder put aside all their differences and teamed up to help protect the new kids from the Isle of the Lost, mostly because they were younger than Evie, Mal, Jay, and Carlos. The aforementioned quartet was busy dealing with their own shit at the time, but Audrey and Ryder had really stepped up with the new kids. And when Harriet Hook and Ginny Gothel had kidnapped Ryder as part of some plot, Audrey had been the one to lead the rescue mission, which Mal had gone on. Audrey had saved Ryder and they had kissed passionately afterwards.

And, as they say, the rest is history.

* * *

Audrey and Ryder's wedding is only the third out of their little band of descendants, following Ben and Mal's almost three years ago and Evie and Doug's last year. Mal had assumed shortly after she came to Auradon that most people's first significant other was also their last, causing a lot of weddings during your early twenties and a lot of infidelity in your late forties, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Well, the infidelity part, anyways. Then again, she lives in a world where true love's kiss and love potions are semi-common occurrences, so she probably has no reason to be surprised.

The wedding is beautiful, as Mal had expected. She keeps wishing that Aria had been able to come, but bringing a seven week old baby to a wedding didn't sound like the best idea to anyone involved. The reception is incredibly small, with not even fifty people there. Mal's never seen Audrey look happier in eight whole years, not even when she was dating Ben (And then Chad) all those years ago.

"You have to be the one to break the unplanned pregnancy streak," Mal tells Audrey during a rare lull in the evening, "Even if Evie and Doug plan their second kid before you have your first, I won't count it." Audrey laughs her small, tinkling laugh and shakes her head at Mal.

"Well, I already beat Evie. And they do say that three times is the charm."

"You have to beat me first. Almost two and a half years in, totally unplanned. Just you wait."

"If we even have kids. I'm not sure that I want them."

"I wasn't sure if I wanted them, either. Of course, Aria made me decide quickly what I did and didn't want."

"I'm sure she did. I better go, though," gesturing to the DJ, who is beckoning her and Ryder forward.

"Go."

It's nice having a night out with all of her friends, but at three AM, she's actually pretty happy to go into Aria's room on no sleep.

* * *

Ben's been caught up in meetings all day, so Mal's been spending the day with Aria, which she'll never complain about.

Aria's eyes are still that newborn baby blue, even at two months old, but considering that both Mal and Ben have greeny-gray eyes, Mal expects them to change. When Aria had been born, she'd had Ben's brown hair as more of a fuzz than hair on her head, but it's slowly starting to fall out, which Evie has assured them is perfectly normal. She even said that there's a chance it could grow back in a different color, though Mal doesn't want that. Purple hair is a curse, and she hopes that Aria does not get it.

(Of course, though, Tegan has Doug's hair. If Tegan has that because of dwarf blood, than Mal knows there's a chance that she and Aria will get to suffer together.)

One minute, Mal's playing with Aria on the bed, and the next she's all but shoved her daughter into her crib and stands in the bathroom with her hands clutching the sides of the sink in a death grip.

Because in between those two minutes, Aria did something that Mal never thought she'd ever, ever have to see.

Her daughter's eyes had flashed that luminescent green for only a split second, but that didn't mean that it didn't terrify her.

Prior to Ben's coronation, she'd never thought much of her mother's staring contests. Her mother said it was about strengthening her will, but after Mal had defeated her mother those nine years ago, she couldn't help but think that maybe her mother had just wanted to use the one bit of her magic that even the Fairy Godmother couldn't shut off.

And now, apparently, Aria is magical, too.

She doesn't know how she feels about that, having barely touched magic since the rescue mission seven years ago. But deep down, she knows that it's not her decision to make over whether or not Aria decides to use magic. She's not going to be her mother and live through her daughter.

The next minute, she and Aria are back in her bed, and she's blowing raspberries into her stomach, which is how Ben finds them later.

Watching Ben cradle their daughter as the light catches his wedding ring makes her oh-so- _very_ happy that she had gotten here.

* * *

 **A/N: Forgive me if I got Ben and Mal's eye color wrong! Next update will be soon; I promise! Expect Wednesday at the earliest, Friday at the latest.**


	20. Birthdays

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **Sorry to go two days with no update, but this chapter didn't want to be written until like 11 o'clock last night and even then it was slow going. In case anyone is wondering,** _ **I will not abandon this story**_ **. If I go a few days without an update, don't panic; I will update soon.**

 **ilovedwahp** **: I'm toying with it. At this point, because of the green flash of her eyes, Mal is pretty sure that she is, but she could very well be wrong.**

 **The guest who asked about Aria meeting Maleficen t** **: When she's older.**

 **The guest who asked if Maleficent knows that Aria was born** **: Maleficent knows that Mal had been pregnant, but right now, she knows nothing more, unless her lizard brain can do math.**

 **LucarioMaster41:** **I don't think so, sorry!**

 **labass** **: I write until I feel the chapter is completed, which is usually at least 3 and a half pages long. (Roughly 1,000 words, it seems to be, though there's definitely been some shorter/longer ones.) I think my longest chapter has been 5 and a half, but it all depends on what I want to happen each chapter and how long it takes to get that.**

 **Anna** **: I've mentioned before that I live in the US, but I'm not going to get any more specific than that. I don't know how many of you actually look at my profile, but that's on there as well as some of my other stories, so you should check them out!**

 **The guest who asked several questions** **: For your first two questions, I will direct you to the first two answers. You'll find out what's up with Evie below, and then Carlos is single. At least, that's what he says.**

 **This chapter has a bit of time skip from the last chapter.**

* * *

Ben still doesn't understand why, exactly, they're throwing a birthday party for a one year old who only knows one other baby, and who won't remember the party, anyways, but in the ten years that he's known her, he's decided to stop trying to solve the puzzle that is Evelyn Dwarfson.

There is one valid reason, he thinks, casting a glance at Audrey and Ryder in the corner. Audrey's drunk off her ass, while Ryder just looks anguished, and he understands why.

Audrey's grandmother died two weeks before. This is the first time she's been out of the house since.

Since Aurora hadn't grown up with her parents, Leah and Stefan were very much involved in Audrey's upbringing. If her parents couldn't make it to something of hers, you could be damn well sure that Leah and/or Stefan would be there, cheering at the top of their lungs for their granddaughter.

Nobody is taking Leah's loss harder than Audrey, not even Stefan or Aurora or Audrey's two younger brothers. He's never seen anyone in his whole life look so broken, and looking at Ryder makes him realize that he's never seen anyone more scared. She's grown up since high school, but it seems that her coping mechanisms have gotten much, much worse than just switching boyfriends.

He joins Mal and the guest of honor a little while later by his daughter's high chair, where she is watching the slice of cake that Lumière is preparing for her hungrily. He sets it down in front of her with a wink and a, "Bon appétit," making her giggle. He lights the candle and steps back so everyone can watch Aria. They all sing 'Happy Birthday,' with Lumière's French version of the traditional song barely audible over the shouts of everyone in the room. When everyone's done, he and Mal show Aria how to blow out the candle, which she tries, only for Ben to step in and blow it out. Aria claps for him, one of her newer skills, and Ben knows what he has to do next, even if Mal will kill him for it.

He takes a bit of the frosting onto his finger…

And smears it on his wife's nose.

"Benjamin Florian Adams," she says slowly, going crossed-eyed so she can take inventory of the vanilla smudge on her nose, "I know you did not."

"Oh, I did. I most definitely did."

He only takes his eyes off of Aria for a split second, he swears, but the next thing he notices is Aria tugging on Mal's purple hair and coating it in the vanilla frosting as she attempts to eat her cake. Carlos's laugh is audible, and Ben can't even _see_ Carlos.

"Sweetie, we don't copy Daddy," Mal cooes, attempting to get the frosting out of her hair, "Daddy's too silly for his own good."

He boops her nose with frosting again for _that_ one.

But soon enough, the vanilla frosting is _everywhere_. It had gotten all over Aria's face and she constantly wanted kisses, which meant getting it on everybody else's faces. Jay and Carlos had volunteered, Evie had been squeamish but done it anyway, and he could've sworn that Audrey had cracked a smile as Aria left a sloppy kiss on her cheek.

"I told you zat chocolate was a bad idea," Lumière laughs, and so Ben hauls Aria out of her high chair and shoves Aria's face up to his, telling her to give him a kiss, which she does. _Good girl_ he thinks.

"There. Payback."

Aria gets way too many toys for a one year-old, but she rather enjoys the wrapping paper that comes with them, especially the sparkly pink one that adorns the Dwarfsons' baby doll. Tegan sticks one of the stick-on ribbons onto the top of Aria's sandy-blonde head, and he makes sure he gets a picture of Aria's slightly confused face as she reaches up to feel the bow now resting there.

Aria and Tegan are best friends, no doubt about it. Tegan adores Aria with all of her heart, and Aria always looks mesmerized whenever she sees Tegan doing one of her self-proclaimed 'big guwl things.' He thinks Tegan would make a great big sister, but he's not sure about Aria just yet.

Tegan's sisterly aptitude makes him confused as to why Evie and Doug haven't announced anything within the realm of babies. Last time he'd checked, Evie wanted five kids and Doug three, and they'd been headed towards a three-or-four-kids compromise. When he'd asked Mal if she knew anything, she'd shaken her head.

Knowing Mal is watching Aria like a hawk, he moves his gaze over to Evie and Doug. It's only then that he realizes that Jay is sitting in between them. Evie and Doug are the most publicly physical with their relationship (Which he is pretty sure had played into Tegan's conception), so normally Evie sits in Doug's lap with her arms looped casually around his neck. Seeing them sitting so far apart, and with Evie's mind quite obviously hundreds of miles away, makes him nervous.

He manages to get Mal's attention and nods his head in their direction. She watches them with a worried look and bites her lip. She's just as nervous as he is about what the hell is going on with them.

He hopes that, whatever it is, it's solved soon.

* * *

Aria is a little harder to put down that night than usual, for what he tells Mal are fairly obvious reasons, indicating the still white bits of her purple hair. He earns a playful slap on the arm in response as they lie down together in bed.

"Do you think we're good parents?" he asks quietly.

"I think so, yeah," she replies, snuggling in closer to his side. "Do you want more kids?"

"Eventually? Yes. Nine months from now? No."

"Me either," she whispers, yawning widely before closing her eyes. "Night."

"Night."

He watches Mal go to sleep and listens to her breathing become deeper and more relaxed. He's not sure if he's ready to go through nines months of morning sickness that doesn't just happen in the morning and cravings and hormones and exhaustion, followed by watching his wife in agony as she pushes another almost seven pound baby out of a fairly small opening. And that's just _his_ end; he knows hers is ten times worse, if not more than that.

His eyes wander to the open door, where he can see the light from Aria's night-light streaming out into the hallway. Aria is one of the best things to ever happen to him, besides Mal. Maybe another one nine months from now wouldn't be so bad.

But this time, he wants it to be planned. _Somebody_ around here's gotta have a planned kid at some point in the near future.

* * *

 **A/N: Next chapter will be up tomorrow at the earliest, Monday at the latest. After that, expect less frequent updates as I prepare for school and then head back.**


	21. Truths

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **Bay** **: I go back this coming week. I always start the Tuesday before Labor Day.**

 **Warning: Mentions of a miscarriage.**

* * *

Evie's not at girl's night. She hasn't missed a girl's night since Tegan was two months old, and now Tegan's over two years old. Mal doesn't know what's been up with her lately, but she's starting to get really, really worried.

She calls Ben and finds out that Doug was at boy's night, which stands to reason that Evie's with Tegan. She tells Ben to keep Doug busy and heads over to Evie's place.

She knocks on the door and rings the doorbell, but Evie still hasn't come to the door.

"Evie, I know you're in there; I can see your car in the driveway. Now open the damn door."

Still no response.

"Evelyn Grimhilde Dwarfson, I'm going to say it again: Open the damn door."

The door of the house flies open. Mal remembers just how much she hates being on the receiving end of Evie's stink eye.

"If you wake Tegan up, I won't care if your the fucking queen or not, your head will still be on a platter."

"Understood. May I come in?"

Evie sighs, but lets her in nonetheless. Her living room is taken up by fabric, books, and Tegan's baby dolls. The coffee table is covered in old chemistry tests and Evie's lesson planner, which means she must be getting a head start on the fast-approaching September and recommencement of school.

"What brings you here?" Evie asks, straightening up some of the papers and clearing some of the books off of a chair so Mal can sit.

"Where were you tonight?"

"Here, trying to get ahead."

"Uh-huh. What's the real reason, E? You miss a girl's night for the first time in two years, you and Doug seem to be barely speaking…" She trails off, her eyes locked on Evie's face, which now has tears rapidly shooting down it.

"You've noticed?"

"Of course we have, Ev. What's going on?"

"Um, so you know how Doug and I haven't started talking about more kids?"

Mal nods.

"Well, we have. When Tegan was eleven months old, I miscarried."

Mal's hand flies to her mouth. Evie had never mentioned this, not _once_. And it happened over a year ago? While Mal had been pretty late in her pregnancy then, was she really _that_ distracted to not notice that something seemed up with Evie?

"It happened on the last day of school. I wasn't even a month along. I had no idea I was even pregnant. And, after that, neither of us brought up the subject of kids, until right before Tegan's second birthday, when I asked Doug if he wanted to try again."

She already knows what Evie's about to say, but it feels wrong to interrupt now, when this is probably the most Evie's talked about any of it in months.

"He said no, because he didn't want to risk going through the pain of losing a kid again. And eventually that spiraled into a fight that got us here." She takes a deep breath. "I told him that if I was willing to risk both the physical and emotional pain, then he should be able to handle the emotional pain, emotional pain that's on a much smaller scale compared to what I went through. He said that I was being selfish, I said that he was being a coward. We're not even sleeping in the same bed anymore, Mal." The last part she adds in a whisper, nervously wringing her hands together. Mal had never seen Evie so scared.

"You two need to talk about this. You should do it when Tegan's home, and asleep, so you can't raise your voices without risking waking her up. I can't stand to see you guys like this, E. Nobody can."

Evie nods, and Mal gives her a reassuring smile. She has faith that Evie and Doug will fix this. They have to.

(And they do.)

* * *

Ben is adamant about the fact that he most definitely did _not_ lose Aria; they're simply playing hide-and-seek and it turns out that their daughter is really good.

Mal sincerely hopes that, for her sake, Aria did _not_ inherit Ben's lying skills, or else she'll never be able to get away with _anything_. He tries to remind her that he made her think he was under a love potion, but she reminds him that he'd said that he wasn't faking anything, so therefore his argument is invalid.

Since he's checked everywhere in the castle that Aria is actually familiar with, Mal decides to check places she's _not_ familiar with. And after a quick internal debate, she enters the room where her mother is kept and, sure enough, there's Aria, doing a combination of talking and babbling animatedly to her baby doll. Maleficent is watching her, but Aria doesn't seem to notice.

"Ria?" Mal calls, and he daughter looks up in surprise, but it's happiness that overtakes her face in nanoseconds.

"Mama!" she shouts, pushing herself to a standing position and toddling over to Mal, who scoops her daughter up into her arms.

"What're you doing in here?" Mal asks her, "Dada and I couldn't find you."

"Baby!" Aria replies, showing Mal her baby doll proudly. The baby doll is a mess that Mal decides she'll clean while Aria naps, and Aria is holding the doll by the arm and shaking it. If Aria _does_ become a big sister, Mal will have to work on how she holds babies.

"I see. C'mon; let's go eat lunch. Lumière bought more Cheerios."

"CHEEROS!" Aria shouts, wrapping her arms around Mal's neck. Aria's skin tone isn't as pale as Mal's, being closer to Ben's, but there's still a contrast between her and her daughter, and not just because Aria's childhood excitement mirrors Ben's excitement just about every day of the week. She's convinced that having a child has turned Ben into a bigger child than he already was.

Mal casts her glance back to the lizard in the spell jar, who has their eyes glued on Mal and the toddler in her arms. The lizard looks an inch or so bigger than the last time she was it, a little under two years ago. She wonders when it did that growing, and if she- _it_ \- harbors any resentment for not knowing that it had a one year-old granddaughter. Though, the lizard was a person once, and might be able to do math.

"Thanks for watching her. Mom."

She watches the lizard grow a whole inch.

* * *

 **A/N: The next chapter will be up no later than Friday, since I return to school this week. Until Chapter 22!**


	22. Daughters

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **Bay** **: I'm in high school.**

 **Devil Hunter 64 :** **Why she's been growing, especially around Aria, is going to be elaborated on, because Mal's relationship with Maleficent is a central part of her character, especially now that Mal's a mother herself.**

 **ilovedwahp** **: Maleficent knows that Aria is her granddaughter after the last chapter; all she knew before was that Mal was pregnant.**

 **The guest who asked about Maleficent** **: The movie describes it as her learning how to love, but yes, that is more or less what happened.**

 **LizzieHeartsfan3:** **Yes, they'll be about once a week until I say otherwise.**

 **This chapter is a lot shorter than most of the others, because I'm kind of out of it from this first week back in a think-y routine, so I apologize in advance!**

* * *

As Aria gains more skills, Ben starts to worry that he's losing his baby girl. Mal laughs and reminds him that she's not even one and a half yet, that Aria adores him, and that he's most definitely not losing her.

But he can't help but worry that someday, she'll be thousands of miles away from him.

(Which is when Mal reminds him that she'll probably still be living with them in the castle.)

He wouldn't trade one second with Aria for the world, though. Whenever he and Mal aren't busy, they're with their daughter, engaging with her, making her laugh, discovering who she is. She loves stuffed animals more than life itself. She hates strained carrots but could survive on strained peas and Cheerios. She prefers to listen to music instead of watch TV. She has his dimples with her mother's smile. She is inquisitive and brave and oh-so very _perfect._

She is his light.

* * *

"Alright, I've got one," Ben says, wrapping his arms around Mal's waist, "Name one way you're like your parents and one way you're different. For me, I'm like my mother because I'm drawn to the darkness inside people, and I'm not like my parents because I… am named Ben."

"Wow," Mal laughs. This has become a ritual for them: Put Aria to bed, turn on the TV, ask each other questions, go to bed.

"I know one way that we're different from both your parents and mine."

"Oh really, overachiever? What's that?"

"We're going to have another baby."

The deeper meaning behind her words takes a minute to take in, but once it does his hand slides down from her waist to her stomach. It isn't planned (Again. They'll have to be better about it next time, if there is one), but he doesn't care.

"We're going to have another baby," he repeats and she nods. "I don't think I've ever loved you this much, you know that?"

"It wasn't all me, you know. You helped." He kisses her, deeply, trying to shove all of his love for her into it.

"How far?"

"Six weeks. Recognized it better this time. But I don't wanna tell anyone until at least thirteen weeks, not even Ari. Our secret."

"I think I can do that."

* * *

 **A/N: Consider that plot development your treat for not only waiting so long for an update, but also for putting up with a short chapter. Next update will be up by the 11th!**


	23. Inspections

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **Before I get to the responses, I'm incredibly proud of the fact that I'm posting this on the tenth and not the eleventh. Of course, as I was writing this, my head was telling me it was Friday the eleventh, but hey! It's still out a day earlier than I expected!**

 **Rottentothecore666** **: The way I wrote that bit was my version basically of what Mal was saying in the end of the movie about that not being the end of the story. I hadn't thought of writing it, but I might.**

 **Bay** **: Well, remember, while to us Aria was born only a few chapters ago, she's over a year old, and Mal's just over a month pregnant. Also, thank you so much for your super kind words! Every review and favorite and follow- but especially the reviews- makes me want to jump for joy.**

 **Guest who asked about Baby #2** **: Yes, I have, using more of the names that were submitted back in the early chapters, so there's a chance that your previously submitted name could make an appearance!**

 **Guest who asked about whether or not this story is Jaylos :** **See the ending author's note for more information on the subject.**

 **Anna:** **She's still called Beastie from time to time, but now most people just shorten her name.**

 **Emilyjauden101:** **We'll see them again, I promise!**

* * *

"I forgot how much I hate morning sickness," Mal sighs as she climbs back into bed. At eight weeks, the morning sickness is becoming more and more vengeful, and she's hating it more and more with each passing session in front of the toilet.

"It'll be over soon," Ben tells her, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"I know, I know," she replies, pulling to covers up to her chin. "You're getting up with Aria. I'm exhausted."

"I expected nothing less."

* * *

"Are you sure you're up for this? You got about four hours of sleep and this is most definitely the worst morning sickness you or Evie has had," Ben tells her as she brushes her teeth after forty-five minutes with her new porcelain best friend. In addition to being the queen of Auradon, she is also the ambassador to the Isle of the Lost. Today is Inspection Day, something she'd hated when she was growing up there. The Isle was searched and everyone had to sit through psych evals. Though, considering those very same psych evals had led to Ben choosing her, Evie, Jay, and Carlos to come to Auradon in the first place, she can't hate them too-too much. She finishes brushing and turns to stare at him with a somewhat annoyed expression.

"I'll be fine. The boys are coming with, anyways, so you can have them report to you at regular intervals if it makes you feel better."

"Very funny, Mal," he tells her, wrapping his arms around her chest and laying his head on her shoulder. She leans back into him, inwardly sighing contentedly. All those years ago, she never would've seen herself here, but hey. She wouldn't trade it for the world. "How's Beastie?"

"Beastie is Aria's. My mom and I share a name and it sucks. I don't care that 'Beastie' is just a nickname; it still feels like we're comparing them. We need a new one for this kid. Any ideas, because so far I'm having trouble."

"I'll let you know when I come up with something," he tells her, pressing a kiss to her shoulder and stepping away so she can exit the bathroom.

There's a knock on the door which Mal opens, and is not at all surprised to see that it's Chip telling her that Jay and Carlos have just arrived and that the car is being pulled around as they speak. Mal gives Aria and Ben each a quick kiss before following Chip to the car.

"Took you long enough," Jay laughs as he helps her in. She sticks her tongue out at him, with Carlos proceeding to call her out on that not being 'proper' for a queen.

(She almost punches him in the face.)

"I heard that Doug and Evie are trying for more kids," Carlos says.

"I'm just glad they finally got their shit together," Jay sighs, "I never like seeing Evie upset."

"Well you and Evie are like brother and sister, so I'm not surprised," Mal replies.

"You and Ben gonna try anytime soon?" Carlos asks her, nudging her arm with his shoulder.

"It's on our minds," Mal lies, hiding her smile. "What about Audrey and Ryder?"

"She said it's in the air," Jay replies, leaning back more in his seat and taking a glance out the window. "Here we go."

The ride across the ocean is very different from how it was their first time across. The barrier that she and Jane had put up after the junior year from hell is not only more powerful but more visible as well, and getting through it is a challenge, but they do.

They arrive in the town square, basically the area in front of her old hang out. She doesn't know if it's because she's older now or her hormones or what, but she suddenly feels nostalgic for the times she spent with her three best friends there. The Isle of the Lost is usually a place she tries not to think about, a piece of her story she'd rather not have published, but she can't help but remember the good bits and pieces of life here, however few and far between they may be.

She gets out of the car first and has to steady herself against the door as her vision spins. She vaguely hears Carlos behind her ask if she's okay, and merely nods, her head swimming even more. It's not until Jay's hand clasps around her arm that she comes back to reality.

"I'm fine," she says in a tone that conveys her not-fineness. Evie and Ben can always tell when she's lying, but Jay and Carlos are more easily fooled by her feigned nonchalance.

Inspection Day starts with a literal inspection around the island. Jay and Carlos ask their guide questions, as the two unlucky people Mal convinced to come along this year for a better view of how her ideas have changed the island they grew up on, even if only slightly.

The last thing she remembers is seeing five front doors of Dragon Hall, when last she checked there was only one.

* * *

She wakes up in the infirmary of Dragon Hall. It looks vastly different than it had all those years ago, as one of her first things to change on the island had been the health care system there. Back then, it had been mostly just beds and puke buckets, but now it's almost as sophisticated as the hospitals in Auradon.

"Move away, Jay," she says, weakly pushing him away from her face. He backs up and, as he does, the world comes back into focus. "What happened?"

"You fainted. Nurse says dehydration, which she also adds is not good in your 'condition.' Something you're not telling us?" Carlos asks, giving her a rather pointed look, though she can see the worry reflected in his eyes.

"It's nothing to worry about, I swear," Mal promises.

"What is it, then?" Jay says, and the two of them, two of her boys, still look beyond terrified.

"I was going to wait another few weeks before I said anything, but Ben and I are going to have another baby."

The two of them are beyond ecstatic.

* * *

 **A/N: So, I have a question for you guys. As I mentioned above, there is a possibility that Jaylos (JayxCarlos) could be a side pairing in this fanfiction. Several people have suggested CarlosxJane and some have suggested a few Jay ships that I've forgotten, but I'm actually kind of leaning towards Jaylos. I know that there is the possibility of there being readers of this story who would be uncomfortable with that for whatever reason, and I totally respect that, which is why I'm asking if you all would be okay with it. I think there is potential for other ships involving Jay and Carlos, and I do like OCs, so please be completely honest with me if you do not want to have Jaylos be a part of this story romantically; it is not the only possibility for me, but this will help me narrow it down.**

 **That's all until next time! Next chapter will be up by the 18th.**


	24. Seconds

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **Continue to leave your Jaylos opinions until Chapter 25 is posted next week, if you haven't already; I will make a decision then.**

 **Guest who commented on one of Ben's lines in Chap 22** **: Sometimes he's intelligent, sometimes he's dumb, and Mal picks up the slack when he's the latter. Other times, however, he just wants to hear his wife laugh.**

 **Bal-Lover:** **A bit undetermined. The Audrey-Ryder wedding chap mentions Ginny Gothel and Harriet Hook, but whether or not they will be formally introduced I'm not sure.**

 **To anyone who ever gives me suggestions for what to include :** **Thank you for caring enough about this story to give input on what you'd like to see. I read every single suggestion and consider it, and I will give you a mention if I use it. If I use it and I don't mention you, tell me, please!**

 **Guest who asked that this story not center on Jaylos, if it happens :** **You're right, this story is about Mal and Ben and them raising their children, but their friends are going to be a big part of this story because of the way I see and therefore write the dynamic between all of them. We've already seen tensions between Doug and Evie and a quick insight into what's been happening in Audrey's world during all this because Ben and Mal care very deeply for their friends. So, with that in mind, if I do choose to include Jaylos, there would be a chapter at most where their romance is center stage, but then after that would mostly be background, like I did (Or at least feel I did) with Audrey and Ryder.**

* * *

"Mommy sick?" Aria asks as Mal bolts into the bathroom in the middle of dinner. Ben's mother looks at him out of the corner of her eye, suppressing a smile, and Adam is clearly trying to hide a smile.

"Yeah, Ben? Is Mal sick?"

"Okay, you two can shut it," he tells his parents, waving his fork in their faces.

"Daddy?" Aria says to him, leaning towards him as much as her highchair allows her to.

"Mommy and I are going to have a big girl talk with you later, okay?"

"I told you," Adam says to Belle giddily, "I _told_ you. I am incredibly perceptive."

"You were turned into a beast," Belle reminds him.

"I didn't say I was _always_ incredibly perceptive," Adam concedes.

Ben watches his parents laughing and joking around with each other, years and years into their marriage. He hopes that, one day, that will be him and Mal, with Aria and their new baby and their families seated at the table with them.

* * *

"Aria, sweetie, we want to talk to you," Mal says, hoisting their daughter up onto the bed.

"Wa bout?" she asks, cuddling into Ben's side. Aria had inherited Mal's cuddle streak, which neither of them are complaining about, knowing very well that in a few years' time she'll be itching to get away from them.

"You know how Mommy's been sick lately?" Aria nods, though she still looks confused. "Well that's because Mommy is going to have a baby. You're going to have a little brother or sister."

"Baby?" Aria asks inquisitively, poking Mal's stomach next to where his wife has laid down her hand.

"Yep, the baby's in there and will come out soon. Are you excited?"

"I want siser! Boys are bruders and boys are yucky."

"Why am I not surprised?" Mal laughs.

"Spending too much time with Tegan, obviously," Ben replies cheekily, though considering he and Mal have been involved in the planning of the huge ball that will be in a few weeks and Aria's been shipped off to the Dwarfsons' almost every day, he's not at all surprised about the bias she's picked up.

"Tegan!" Aria shouts happily, and then yawns. "I tired, Mommy."

"I can see that," Mal laughs, scooping Aria into her arms and carrying her off to the nursery.

It's only then that it all really hits him. They have six months to do so much. Plan a baby shower. Move Aria to a new room. Or create a whole new nursery for Baby #2. They have to name it, they have to get stuff for it…

How had they managed to do it all last time?

Mal can tell that something's up, but he doesn't confirm or deny anything. He knows her, and if he lets any of his fears slip out, she'll go into full-blown panic.

"I'm just excited for Valentine's Day. And this year, we are going out. You cannot use Aria or pregnancy as an excuse; I've let you get away with that two years in a row."

"Can we go to Pizza Planet?" Mal asks innocently.

"I was thinking something more sophisticated, like Tony's? Or Chez Couteaux?"

"Why?"

"Because it's Valentine's Day."

"But Pizza Planet has such sentimental value," Mal sighs.

"Mal, you don't even think the food's that good, and you want to spend Valentine's Day there?"

Aaaaaaand cue the waterworks. He'd forgotten all about this part of the pregnancy.

"Alright, alright, we'll go to Pizza Planet," he soothes, rubbing her back up and down, "Just stop crying before you wake up Aria."

She doesn't calm down for another half-hour.

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry it's short; had a bit of writer's block with this one. Next chapter will be up by the 25th!**


	25. Sisters

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **I will not be accepting anymore Jaylos opinions now that this is posted. My answer will be revealed no later than Chapter 27.**

 **Bay:** **I plan on including chapters in Aria's POV, but I don't know when I'll start them.**

 **Skye-Writes-21 (I think this is you; this answers the cuteness guest review):** **While I thank you for the name suggestion, I am currently not accepting them. I'll let you guys know if I reopen it.**

 **MStar10:** **There will be plenty of Aria-Tegan bonding moments, trust me!**

 **pinksakura271:** **Whether or not they have magical abilities will be revealed soon.**

 **Anna:** **I was going to help you, and I'm glad you got it working! When I checked your account it wasn't showing any stories were up, but I'll check again later if you remind me.**

 **Guest who noticed the 25th is posted on the 25th :** **I didn't, no!**

* * *

"How've things been so far?" the doctor asks as he smears the cold gel onto Mal's stomach. She sighs, running a hand through her hand.

"Morning sickness was horrendous; thank God it's over," she laughs, giving the top of her stomach a small pat. "Hormones are as bad as last time, though I think the cravings are a little better. Ben will probably disagree with me there." She pauses, unsure how exactly what she wants to say to approach her next statement. "I also think I'm bigger than I was last time. At eighteen weeks, that is."

"Well, you are small, so if the baby's bigger than Aria was he or she will be taking up more space more quickly. But you've also been pregnant before, so you might just have started showing faster because of that and because you started showing earlier, you're making it synonymous with being larger than you were before."

"Well, Aria was a pretty small baby," Mal laughs, thinking of the six and a half pound baby Aria had been way back then, "And Ben was virtually ten pounds." To her belly, she adds, "Please don't be ten pounds, Fey."

"Is that the nickname you're going with this time around?" the doctor asks, making sure everything's on and working properly before slowly moving the wand over Mal's stomach.

"Yeah, my friend Evie actually came up with it. As I'm sure you're aware, my mom's a fairy and Ben's dad was a beast for a little while. Hence, Aria was Beastie and this little one with be Fey."

"I'm assuming you don't want to know the gender?"

"Total surprise," Mal answers.

"Alright. Then what I will tell you is that Fey looks incredibly healthy. Heartbeat?"

"Heartbeat," she agrees. Hearing their child's heartbeat is always her and Ben's favorite part of the exam, though considering Ben and Doug had taken Aria and Tegan to the park, he's not here to relish it with her.

The whooshing sound fills the air and Mal sighs in contentment. There's always something special to her about hearing her child's heartbeat, even when she hears Aria's steady one beating against her when the little girl wakes up in the middle of the night and needs to be soothed back to sleep. Hearing it in the ultrasounds always cements the fact that what's happening is _real_.

"Nice and strong," the doctor tells her with a smile.

"Just like their big sister."

* * *

"We're up to twenty weeks," Ben announces to the camera, "And your mom looks as hot as ever."

"Ben," Mal sighs, trying to hide her blush, "They're going to be watching this when they're like our age. They don't want to hear about if their dad thought their mom was hot."

"Well. Too late now. So, as I was saying-"

Aria's voice is heard through the baby monitor, calling for them.

"Can siblings take part in baby diaries?"

"Why not?" Ben says as she stands up. She enters Aria's room to find the little girl standing up in her crib, bouncing up and down in it.

"Are you awake, Beastie?" she cooes, scooping her daughter up into her arms. As her bump expands, it's become harder and harder to hold Aria, but considering she prefers to walk nowadays anyway, it's not like it matters all that much. Aria itches to be put down and Mal lets her, doing her best to keep up as the little girl toddles into her mom and dad's room.

"Daddy!" she shouts, jumping onto the bed.

"And here's Aria," Ben tells the camera, scooping the little girl into his arms as Mal finally makes it onto the couch. "Can you say hi to Fey?"

"Fey? HI FEY!" she shouts to Mal's stomach, earning a laugh from Mal.

"No, Ria, we're talking to Fey through the camera. She'll watch this when she's older."

"Oh. HI FEY!" she shouts to the camera instead, and the two giggling parents share a look over the top of her coffee colored head.

"Are you gonna be a good big sister to Fey?"

"Yes! I be just like Tegan 'cause Tegan like my big sistuh."

Aria idolizes Tegan, something which both Mal and Ben are already aware of. However, her telling them this brought it to a whole new level.

"I'm glad. I think you'll make a great big sister," Mal tells her.

"Weally?"

"Really."

* * *

"I come bearing gifts, as requested," Chad says as he enters Mal and Ben's bedroom with a bag from Kwikki Chikki. Mal takes the bag from him greedily and takes a huge bite of one of the sandwiches. "You do know that this place doesn't serve chicken, right?"

"Fey's in the mood for it, all right?" she snaps. "And you didn't have to answer my call for help."

"Well with everyone either out of town or busy, who else did you have to call?"

Mal and Chad have never been overly close. She feels like that, on her own, she and Chad probably wouldn't talk much, especially after everything he'd said about them when they first arrived. It may have been water under the bridge, but that doesn't mean it doesn't still pop into her mind.

"Unc Chad!" Aria calls as she runs down the hall, Belle chasing after her. Her mother-in-law had offered to watch Aria so Mal could get some sleep, which she's immensely grateful for, though Fey had taken that as an invitation to demand food and kick the shit out of her mother.

"Aria!" Chad mimics, scooping her up into his arms.

There's one thing that can always redeem Chad for her, though.

How good he is with her.

"She really likes you, you know," Mal says, reaching out to tickle her daughter's neck. The little girl and Ben share the same ticklish neck, and the same shriek is emitted whenever you tickle them there. "You and that girlfriend of yours should get married and have one already."

"Maybe someday soon," he answers as Belle gently lifts Aria out of his arms and takes her out of the room, "Are Doug and Evie still trying?"

"Carlos says they're like two dogs in heat," Mal laughs, thinking about how terrified of dogs young Carlos had been, and now he's comparing his friends to them. "There's a reason I called you. I didn't need to hear any sexy activity going on between them. I mean, I know that she and Doug have it, but thinking of Evie having sex just really grosses me out."

"Yeah, that's how I feel about Ellie and Harry, Doug's cousin?"

"I remember him. How is your sister doing? I haven't seen her in a while."

"Good. Disgustingly in love with Harry, last I checked. She's coming to my game tomorrow."

"Well tell her I say hi," Mal tells him.

"You know, Ellie and I fought all the time growing up, but we're a lot closer now."

"And you're telling me this why?" Mal laughs.

"If Aria fights with Fey all the time, don't get too stressed out about it. It's normal."

"Are you giving me, a happily married mother, parenting advice, dude who's not even engaged yet?"

"Yes?" he says slowly, earning a laugh from Mal. "Just, with you and Ben being only children-"

"No, no, I understand why you gave it, and I thank you, I just thought it was funny."

Chad nods and awkwardly and makes his way out. Mal watches him leave and takes another bite into her sandwich. It may not be the best food she's ever had, but Fey sure does seem to love it.

"You better not be like Aria, kid, and make me eat stuff that you don't even like."

Fey kicks in response.

* * *

 **A/N: Next chapter will be up by October 9, and I know that's not next week but I have a project and two papers due between now and October 5, so I'll be focusing mostly on those for right now. Don't be surprised, though, if the next chapter does wind up going up before that as I procrastinate magnificently.**


	26. Chapters

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **My Jaylos answer will be revealed no later than Chapter 27.**

 **MStar10:** **As soon as I get to the birth chapter, you'll find out!**

 **LP64:** **The baby's gender is unknown to Mal and Ben, and normally they're very careful to refer to Fey (And Beastie, way back when) using "they." But, sometimes, they slip up and say "she" or "he." But, long story short, no, they do not know the baby's gender.**

 **Bay:** **I did! I was curious if anyone would comment on that.**

 **Fair warning: This chapter involves a time jump, but it's only a few months.**

* * *

"Hey, Aria," Ben whispers, slowly shaking his daughter awake. She's two years old now, a fact that simply astounds Ben, even though it's been over a month since her birthday. "Beastie, sweetie, wake up."

"Daddy?" she asks in her little voice, rubbing at her eyes. The stuffed dog Carlos gave her is smooshed up under her head and she rolls over it to look up at him.

"Come with me."

"Where we go?"

"To meet your baby sister."

Clara Paige Adams was born at 5:22 AM on July 12, four days after she was supposed to be, something Mal hadn't been all that happy about, especially since Aria had been early. As penance, he supposes, labor only lasted about an hour and a half, at least that's how long they were _aware_ of her being in labor. It was probably longer, in actuality, but neither of them had time to debate about technicalities during all of that.

But now Clara had been named, bathed, fed, and all of that good stuff, so Ben had been elected to go collect Aria, especially since she would've woken up by herself soon, anyways, and probably would've woken up most of the castle without Ben and Mal there to stop her. Aria had been almost as excited about the baby's arrival as her parents were, and the fact that she had a little sister was sure to make her even happier.

Mal is sitting up once they make it to the infirmary, Clara in her arms. Aria's face lights up as soon as she sees her mother and she launches herself onto the bed.

"Careful!" Ben hisses, but Mal gives him a look that clearly says _It's fine_ as she adjusts Clara so Aria can see her.

"What her name?"

"Her name is Clara."

"Pwetty."

"Daddy and I think so, too."

"She look like me!"

It's true. Clara had brownish fuzz that is just about the same color as Aria's hair. Her eyes are newborn baby blue, which, if she's like Aria, won't change very much in hue. Their face shapes are the same, though Ben thinks Clara's nose is closer to Mal and Aria's to his own. He already is imagining the two of them growing up together, fighting and competing but helping and loving at the same time. He always wanted a sister growing up. He's really glad that he can give that to Aria. And to Clara, too, he supposes, although he considers that a chicken-or-the-egg type of thing.

"Yeah, I think she does, too," Ben agrees, wrapping his arms around Mal's shoulders. He wishes he could capture this moment, with Aria being quiet and simply in awe and all the love and adoration pouring out of Mal's every pore for the three people who make up their little family.

"I hold her?"

"Yeah," Mal says, helping Aria adjust her arms so she can hold her sister, "But careful. She may look like one of the dollies that Aunt Evie gave you, but she isn't, okay?"

"I know."

Ben pulls out his phone to capture a picture of the moment, and makes sure to post it to his Facebook before Evie can kill him for not doing so. He examines the picture again, smiling. That's his _family_. It's such a surreal feeling for him. Sure, when he met Mal he knew he wanted a future with her, but actually _living_ that future is something else entirely.

 _That is_ so _my new phone background._

* * *

Clara's not-baptism coronation is a lot less hectic than Aria's had been, though that's probably because this time around, they know what to expect. Aria is beyond excited that she gets to wear her tiara for the event and Mal even offers to curl her hair for her. He doesn't think he's ever seen their daughter so excited, and he starts to think that maybe Evie's personality is rubbing off on his daughter more than her own.

They actually attend the little afterparty this year, since somebody needs to keep an eye on Aria as she plays with Tegan and Jay had been so easy with playoffs that he hadn't even had the chance to meet her yet. Clara basically sleeps through the whole thing, and Ben's beyond thankful that she is a relatively good sleeper for someone who's less than a week old.

Evie and Doug hang out with them most of the night, talking about everything ranging from Evie's baby bump just starting to appear to how oddly Carlos has been acting lately. It's nice to just have that.

That night, after Clara and Aria have both gotten into bed, Aria rather begrudgingly, of course. Aria has never been the greatest sleeper, which gives him hope for Clara, who's already fantastic at the whole sleeping thing.

"What happens if she wakes Aria up again?"

"Then we deal accordingly. Now shut up; I'm ready to go to sleep."

"Too much time spent in a social situation?"

"I don't appreciate those kind of jabs, Benjamin."

"Whatever you say. Get some sleep."

"I'm trying, but somebody won't shut up." He presses a kiss to forehead and settles into the bed.

* * *

 **A/N: Special thanks to** **Bell8421** **and** **Secret Identity** **for suggesting "Clara" and "Paige," respectively, way back in, God, chapter 6 maybe, when I was asking for name suggestions for Aria. Next chapter will be up by the 16th!**


	27. Couples

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **So. About what I said about this being up on the 16th… Surprise! And I think it's one of the longest ones in a while, too!**

 **Everyone who reviews** **: I finally figured out how to respond to reviews** _ **not**_ **in this story, and will be responding to your reviews that way from now own. If you review as a guest or I am unable to respond that way for whatever reason, your answer will be here.**

 **Anna** **: Maybe, who knows! I hadn't thought of it but I will definitely will!**

 **Fanfiction Lover** **: Keep in mind that Maleficent is still a lizard. However, knowing her, I'm sure** _ **something**_ **could happen along those lines.**

 **This chapter involves a two month time skip.**

* * *

Whenever anybody in their group started dating anybody, everybody else in the group had an opinion on it. When Evie and Doug got together, Mal had literally jumped up in the air in excitement. During Jay and Audrey's brief fling during the Junior Year From Hell, Ryder had been annoyingly jealous. When he and Audrey finally _did_ get together, Anxelin was incredibly proud to state that she'd made money off of Flynn. Once Chad's sister took an interest in Carlos during the summer between junior and senior years, the two boys couldn't stand in the same room together without a fight of some sort, whether physical or verbal, always instigated by Chad, breaking out. That is, up until he realized that Carlos had no idea Ellie had a crush on him. The second Lonnie announced that she and Nathan, Queen Tiana and King Naveen's son, had broken up, was the first time that Mal had ever seen Doug look _angry_. Jane's first boyfriend was interrogated by Ben, Doug, Chad, Ryder, Jay, Carlos, and Flynn, all at once. And everyone wonders why he called it off.

But, the point is, Mal wouldn't blame _anyone_ in their group for being hush-hush about whether or not they were seeing anyone, because it would become a never-ending topic of conversation. Audrey gets pestered about having kids on a weekly basis, usually from Evie, who simply wants Tegan's little sibling to have a friend like Tegan does in Aria, although Mal's sure that she's probably facing pressure from Ryder's parents as well. Chad keeps getting asked about when he's finally going to pop the question, and he gets that on all fronts- friends, parents, Ellie. Lonnie claims that, if and when she starts dating someone, she's not letting Anxelin near them with a ten foot pole, because Anxelin makes people incredibly uncomfortable. After Jane introduced Anxelin to them at the coronation party, Mal wouldn't look at her for two and a half months because Anxelin had made her so uncomfortable. And even then it was only because Anxelin and Ben were biology lab partners and Anxelin needed to steal him away that the two even shared a conversation.

So, yes, she understands the motives that Carlos has for sneaking around with someone- because he is, quite obviously, sneaking around with someone, that much she's sure of. But she's also _incredibly_ pissed off about the whole thing, because Carlos has never dated _anyone_ , never shown any interest in _anyone_. At least, she doesn't think that he's ever shown any interest in anyone. And she has been a tad distant from him in the past two and a half years; kids will do that to you. But still. This is _huge_ , and he doesn't even have the decency to hide the fact that he's sneaking around. She wants to talk to Jay or Evie about it, but Jay won't say a word and Evie's as in the dark as she is.

So, she talks to the only person she knows can help:

Jane.

Jane had gone to Camelot Heights University after high school and had come back with a new fashion style, a Ph.D. in child psychology, and a new confidence that none of them had seen in her during high school. College had changed all of them in various different ways, but on Jane, it was the most noticeable. She voiced her opinion more often, she carried herself differently, she was the first one to ask for something whenever they went out in public. She and Carlos had become closer after college, so not only was she her best bet outside of Mal, Evie, and Jay, but she could maybe provide some clinical explanation.

"Mal, I'm only a _child_ psychologist," Jane laughs as Mal steps into the office.

"I know. I've got Clara, see? There's a child for ya," Mal replies, patting the baby car seat on one of her arms with her free hand.

"Considering Clara is two months old, I don't think there's much I can do."

"I'm here about Carlos."

Jane stiffens and Mal's interest piques.

"So you _do_ know something about his behavior over the past few months."

"I do. And it's not my place to tell, Mal."

"Jane-"

"Mal. The only way you're going to find out is if you ask him."

"Can't you just tell me?"

"Goodbye, Mal," Jane laughs, steering her out of the office.

"Can you at least tell me if he's seeing someone?" Jane hesitates before sighing and nodding her head. "We knew it!"

"'We?'"

"Me and Evie. See ya!"

* * *

Mal climbs back into bed after getting up with Clara. She's a great sleeper, but she got an ear infection and that hasn't been helping.

"Hi," Ben mutters sleepily.

"Hi."

"Do you want me to get up with her next?" Mal nods and curls up into his side. He wraps an arm around her and kisses her cheek as he tells her, "You're gonna push me off the bed."

"Sorry." He chuckles as they readjust themselves on the bed, Mal's head buried in his shoulder. "I talked with Jane today."

"What'd she have to say?"

"That I would need to talk to Carlos."

"You know, I could've told you that."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

* * *

What she's definitely _not_ expecting is for Ben to come home from boys' night with a very huge yet somewhat disbelieving smile on his face, and for the source of it to be what it is.

She pulls out her cell phone and is speaking to Carlos angrily.

"You didn't _tell_ me?!"

"Mal-"

"Look. I can understand the sneaking around thing from the big group. But you couldn't even tell me and Evie?"

"Mal-"

"I am _very_ mad at you, Carlos de Vil."

"Can you let me talk, Maleficent?"

She freezes. Nobody _ever_ calls her by her full first name, not even when they're angry at her. Ben _never_ dares to call her by her full name, because it would result in him getting seriously injured.

"I'm sorry; it slipped out-"

She hangs up the phone on him.

He calls her back six times before she finally picks up the phone, and this time it's Jay's voice on the other end.

"I'm responsible, too."

"Damn right you are. How long has this been going on?"

"Um, well Carlos and I moved in together once he started at Doc and that way what, three years ago? So… five years?"

"Five years and you didn't tell _anyone_!"

"We didn't want everyone to freak! But hey, we did a pretty good job hiding it, huh?"

"Don't ruin this. You and Carlos have been dating for _five years_. Without so much as a _peep_ from either of you until right around the time Clara was born."

"Yeah."

"Do you know how badly I want to strangle both of you?"

"Yes."

"So… what's the deal? You weren't just teasing Audrey, were you?"

"No, I wasn't. I genuinely took an interest in her. We're both bi, though Carlos prefers guys and I don't care all that much."

"I don't need to know _that_ much, geez," Mal laughs. "So. Why _now_?"

"Because Carlos has started talking about marriage."

If Mal had taken a sip of a drink just then, she would've spit it all over the place at _that_ remark. She is going to overload if she is given any more information about them.

"So?"

"So what? We've just started talking about it."

"Yeah, but talking means proposing."

"Mal-"

"No, seriously."

"Mal, you live your life and we'll live yours. Doesn't Clara have an ear infection?"  
"Yeah, but we think it's going- Are you trying to distract me by asking about my children?"

"Is it working?" he asks slowly.

"Yes, yes it is," she says after a slight pause.

"So. Tell me about how the potty-training is going with Aria." Mal's groan serves as confirmation that it's not going well and Jay laughs on the other side of the line.

She's missed bragging about her kids to Jay, who _always_ humors her or Evie when they start to do it. Everyone else will just roll their eyes fondly, but Jay always listens, always asks a ton of questions.

"Jay?"

"Yeah?"

"I hope you know that I'm really happy for you and Carlos."

"I know you are."

* * *

 **A/N: I have a plan for these guys and their relationships not only with each other, but with Audrey and Jane and probably even Lonnie as well. Be patient and all will be revealed.**

 **As for the next chapter, I have no idea. I'll try for the 16th, but it probably won't be until the 23rd, at the latest. I had the day off from school today and I just started chugging away at this and couldn't stop. But enjoy!**


	28. Dads

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **For everyone who honestly shared their opinions about the reveal in their reviews :** **Thank you for being honest. I literally combed through every review you guys left on the subject matter and got a mostly 50/50 opinion, but ultimately decided to go with my gut, a gut feeling I'd had since the beginning that made me hesitant to pair off Carlos, Jay, Audrey, and Jane.**

 **Bay (Both reviews)** **: First one- I do, though I don't know them very well. Second one- remind me of your username and I'll go looking for it!**

* * *

Considering Aria is almost two and a half, Ben and Mal have decided that it's time she graduate from diapers. Even if it's just to Pull-Ups. They may still have her sleeping in a crib, but they can't keep changing both Aria _and_ Clara's diapers, because they're going through diapers like crazy now and it's _really_ starting to get old.

"Alright, schedule for today; you ready?"

"Yep," she replies as she applies lip gloss to her lips.

"So Clara's got her check-up at eleven."

"I can't take her or Aria; I have a meeting about the next Isle of the Lost fundraising event from 10 to noon," Mal sighs. Ben nods slowly, thinking everything through.

"Alright; I'll do it, then, and I'll find someone to watch Aria. Remind me why we don't have a nanny?"

"Because we have this under control. For the most part," Mal laughs, setting her lip gloss down and smacking her lips. "What about after lunch? We can't have a free weekday afternoon; that never happens.

"Please. We'll have to hand them both off to my parents when we go to their anniversary planning meeting at four, but that's it meeting wise. And then the whole Aria potty training situation? How are we handling that?"

"Whoever's with her just needs to keep asking her about it. Jane says it's the only thing we can do right now," Mal sighs, placing the bronzer brush down and running a hand through her purple hair. She's toying around with growing it out a little past her shoulders, but she's worried about Clara tugging on it more so than she already does. He thinks she'll look beautiful either way, which is something she always rolls her eyes at whenever he says.

"You look perfect," he whispers to her, planting a kiss to her cheek. "I'm going to get the girls up. Have fun at Lonnie's brunch."

"Yep. Nothing like brunch with the girls to start the week off right," she says, and he's pretty sure that she's not being sarcastic. She stands up, gives him a quick kiss, and leaves their bedroom, her clutch in one hand and her heels dangling in the other.

He goes to Clara first, and she's already up, playing with some of the toys he and Mal keep tucked in the corner of her crib. She's sitting with her back against the bars of her crib and shaking the little blanket with a rabbit's head on it up and down. She's instantly happy to see him and laughs when he tickles her. The laughs of his three girls are his favorite sounds in the world.

Aria is still curled up in a small ball in her crib. Ben simply places Clara down into the crib next to her and Clara begins climbing all over her sister, and Ben smiles. He hadn't been lonely, exactly, growing up, but he went back and forth on his stance about being an only child. Sometimes he wanted siblings, sometimes he didn't, and sometimes he just didn't care. But when he sees moments like this, when he hears Aria happily cooing to Clara as the former sits up in her crib, holding her little sister close, that he kind of wishes he'd had this bond with someone.

But he also loves seeing it between his girls.

* * *

"Aria, do you need to go potty?" Ben asks as he exits Clara's room after putting her down for her post-lunch nap. Aria's about to settle down for her own, but he hasn't heard a peep out of her on the subject yet, so he's delaying.

"No," she tells him, and he sighs, because she'll definitely wake up wet; no doubt about that. He's just laid her down in her crib and turned out the light when she goes, "Daddy?"

"Yes?"

"I pee pee," she laughs, and Ben sighs, running a hand through his hair.

"I just asked you five minutes ago."

"I not have to go then," she says, like it's the most natural thing in the world, and he supposes that, to a two year old, it probably is.

"Alright, c'mon," he sighs, picking her back up. "We're not telling Mommy about this, okay?"

"Okay."

"That's my little Beastie," he whispers as he lays her on the changing table, blowing a raspberry onto her stomach. She laughs loudly and he shushes her with a gentle reminder that Clara's asleep, and her peels of laughter stop abruptly. She looks upset as she says, "I not wake Cara?"

"No, you didn't wake up Clara," he promises, finishing putting on the new diaper and laying her back into her crib. "Now go to sleep, sweetie. You get to play with Grammie and Grampy before dinner, but only if you take a good nap."

"Okay, Daddy," she sighs, curling up with the stuffed dog.

"I love you, Aria."

"I love you, Daddy."

As he turns out the light, he can't help but smile. He's got this dad thing down pat.

* * *

 **A/N: Yeah, it's on the shorter side, but I have writer's block (Again) and I felt bad about not posting since last Monday. The next update will be October 30th!**


	29. Chaos

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea.**

 **Bay:** **I think that could totally work! Thanks for the suggestion, and I hope you have/had fun at your school dance!**

 **MAD (If you're even still reading this) :** **I'm sorry you feel that way. All my stories are a "Don't like, don't read" deal, so…**

 **Big fan of you :** **In the future, yes. There is a teeny tiny bit of it in Chapter 19 (Eyes) when Ben most definitely does** _ **not**_ **lose Aria, but that's really it so far. Maleficent might not even know that Mal was pregnant with Clara because Mal might not have told her.**

* * *

Christmas came and went, and then, before Mal knew it, it was 2027. Then January passed by in a blur of meetings and banquets and balls and milestones. Aria is now only a few weeks away from wearing underwear all day long and only Pull-Ups at night, and Clara has said her first word- Ara, quickly followed by 'Da-da.' Considering Aria's first word had been 'Ma-ma,' he's incredibly proud.

All of the sudden, it's February, and Tegan is a big sister. The first boy of their little group had to, of course, be Evie and Doug's son, a tiny little thing named Henry. She's only seen Tegan hold him a few times, but Mal knows that Tegan is going to take to being a wonderful big sister, if her interactions with Aria and Clara are any indication. Evie is one of the most caring people Mal knows, and Tegan certainly inherited that.

She's a little worried about Tegan, though. Being that their daughter's almost four, Evie and Doug needed some time to get used to having a baby again, so Ben and Mal volunteered to watch her for a little while. Tegan's been coming over to the castle most days after pre-school. She's usually picked up before dinner, but there's been a few times she's staying until almost Aria's bedtime, and those are the times that worry Mal and Ben.

One day in early February, Tegan comes over after pre-school and she throws up, with it narrowly avoiding Clara. Ben takes her down to the infirmary while Mal keeps Aria and Clara occupied, a surprisingly easy feat that night.

"Stomach flu," Ben announces once he returns, and Mal sighs, standing up off the couch to take Tegan out of Ben's arms.

"Wash your hands- thoroughly- and then sit with the girls. I'm gonna call Evie."

She goes to another room to call Evie, since the _last_ thing she needs right now is either one of her kids getting sick. She feels bad for Evie, of course, but the one coherent thought in her head is _Sucks for you!_

Neither Evie nor Doug picks up when she calls their cells, so she tries the home phone. Twice. Doug picked up on one of the last rings.

"Yes, Mal?" He sounds as if he's at his wit's end, and she can hear Henry crying loudly in the background. Evie had said that he'd been diagnosed with colic a few days earlier, one of the main culprits for all-but kicking Tegan out of the house.

"I called-"

"I can't hear you. Eve, you've got the better ears; I'll take him and you can talk to Mal," she hears him shout.

"No, Doug, it's fine-"

"Here she is."

There's a rustling noise and the crying fades into the very light background. The last thing Mal hears before Evie makes any noise of her own is a door slamming shut, quickly followed by a sigh.

"Hi, Mal. I'm sorry about… all that. He's just really fussy."

"I'm a mom, too, E; you don't have to apologize to me."

"I know. Okay, so, what's up?"

"Tegan's got the stomach flu; I think you said it was going around her preschool?"

"Yeah, and I naïvely hoped she'd be spared. Is she doing okay?"

"Well enough. She's thrown up at least once; I don't know if she did again when Ben took her down to the infirmary. What time do you want to get her?"

"You're not going to watch her for me?"

"E, she's sick!"

"So?! Henry has colic and wakes her up in the middle of the night!"

"I have two young children, too, Evie, and I don't want Tegan around them if she has the stomach flu!"

"Fine! I'll be there in half an hour."

"Evie, don't sound so victimized about this! She's your kid, not mine!"

"I'm sorry that not all of us are queens with nannies to look after their children!"

"Ben and I don't have a nanny, and you know that! We didn't dump Aria on you 24/7 after Clara was born!"

"You would if Doug or I suggested it. I thought you looking after Tegan was returning the favor!"

"It was, at first, but she keeps staying here longer and longer each day. She misses you, E, and you guys just keep dumping her on us!"

"I told you I'll be there in half an hour, alright? Bye."

Mal hangs up the phone in shock.

* * *

Tegan's better in time for Valentine's Day, when the Charmings always throw a big party that they're always invited to.

Aria runs off with Tegan almost immediately, and Mal knows that Clara wants to desperately, but, as Aria gently points out, "Clara, you're still a baby. You can't play with us yet." Evie and Henry are nowhere to be seen, but Doug tells her that they're around somewhere.

Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Jay and Carlos conversing quietly in the corner, and holds in a laugh. For the past five years, she'd always assumed they were just being antisocial and talking about tourney or the like. Now, she's sure that they'd been having different conversations that whole time. She and Carlos are still on rocky terms since the whole 'Maleficent' thing, and Ben and Carlos can literally not look at each other without Ben looking like he's going to murder his friend.

"M?" she hears someone call, but only one person would ever call her that. She turns around and, surprise surprise, there's Evie, holding an only slightly fussy Henry. "I wanted to-"

"It's already forgiven, E. You were- well, you still are- a ball of stress."

"Thank you for understanding."

"What are fellow moms here for?"

* * *

Mal wakes up in the middle of the night about a week later to screams of pain.

It's only when she tries to get her husband's attention that she realizes that it's _him_.

"Ben? Ben?! BEN?!"

She wakes up Belle and Adam, who rush him to the hospital, which scares her almost as much as his screams. The palace doctor hadn't been on call, so the hospital had seemed safer. Adam stays behind with Aria and Clara and Mal sits with Belle in the waiting room, waiting for something- anything- to tell her that Ben is going to be okay.

* * *

 **A/N: I know, I'm evil. Next update will be no later than November 6!**


	30. Changes

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **Big fan of you** **: Yes, several people have been getting sick over the course of the first 29 chapters of this story. But remember, this story is currently set in late February of 2027 and started in late 2022, I think. Aria had an ear infection as a little baby, Tegan got the stomach flu, Henry has colic, and now something's up with Ben. Illness is a natural part of life. There may have been instances in between these as well that just didn't come up. And don't apologize for noticing!**

 **KittyLover123:** **I update at least once a week, usually on Fridays because I'm busy in school. Sometimes I do before that, but it doesn't happen very often. (I think it's only happened twice in the weeks that I've adjusted to the once-a-week system, and one of those times it was Thursday but I thought it was Friday in my head)**

 **Megs:** **Thank you so much for the suggestion! I'm not sure if Maleficent will come back, but if she does, even for a second, that's a very interesting idea!**

* * *

Ben wakes up in a room that smells a lot like antiseptic. _Okay,_ he thinks, _for some reason I'm in the infirmary._

But as he opens his eyes more and more, he realizes this is most definitely _not_ the infirmary.

"Mal?" he asks the girl at his side, who is asleep herself. "Mal?" he says again, a little louder, and she lifts her head up. "Why-"

She interrupts him by slamming her lips to his. He doesn't complain about it, but he is very confused.

"You are never allowed to scare me like that again, do you understand? This is not like the Enchanted Lake; this is much, much bigger."

"As soon as you tell me what I did," he responds, reaching for her hand, which she offers to him quickly.

"Remember how we both got Tegan's flu, but the girls didn't?"

"Yeah?"

"Yours wasn't the flu. It was appendicitis."

That would answer all of his questions.

"Am I gonna be okay?"

"You are now. You had an emergency appendectomy, and you're gonna stay at the hospital for a few days so they can monitor you. And then you'll be back to ruling this kingdom in no time."

He kisses her again, this time just on her hand.

"I love you so damn much. I hope you know that."

"I love you, too. Don't ever forget that."

* * *

The few days he's at the hospital pass agonizingly slowly. Mal seems especially out of it for most of them.

Almost everybody comes to visit him at least once, bringing flowers and Chad even brings him a giant teddy bear that's about the size of Tegan, Aria, Henry, and Clara combined and about as hairy as Dude had been back before he died in November. (Carlos had worn black for almost six weeks until Jane had talked to him). Audrey comes and eats mint chocolate chip ice cream with him while Mal's out doing… whatever she's doing, a throwback to when they were seven and she'd gotten her tonsils taken out and he'd sat by her bedside and they'd eaten mint chocolate chip ice cream together.

Evie's one of the last people to visit him in the hospital, bringing Henry and Tegan with her. Tegan hugs her 'Uncle Ben' quickly before seeing the empty pot of ice cream in Ben's trash can and then asking repeatedly if they can get ice cream. His mom peeks her head in and volunteers to take both of them, which Evie's quite visibly relieved with and sends them off with a stern reminder to Tegan that Henry is still too young for ice cream.

"I know I probably shouldn't be so happy to pawn them off like that, especially when Henry's still really young," she sighs as he gives her a little look, "But being a mom is hard, and a break is a break. You know that. And with three kids-"

"What do you mean, 'three?' You and Doug _just_ had your second. You shouldn't be cleared for _that_ for like another month."

"Not me. You guys."

"Why are you saying that? I know we watch Tegan a lot, but-"

"No, it's not that. I saw Mal at the pharmacy today when I went to get some more diapers for Henry and she was buying a pregnancy test."

"Oh," he says lamely, thoughts firing through his brain at a mile a minute. His wife has been pregnant twice before, so he highly doubts this is a false alarm. They'd both thought that they'd gotten the stomach flu from Tegan, but since his is appendicitis, maybe hers had actually been morning sickness. Plus, Clara would be one in July, and considering Aria and Clara were just barely two years apart, he wouldn't be surprised if it had happened again.

But his nerves are escalating quickly. They can't have a third kid, not yet. They didn't even start having any sort of discussions about adding to their family until Aria was one. He's not ready for a third one, not yet.

He takes deep breaths to calm himself down. He knows that, if Mal is pregnant, even if it will complicate their lives immensely, that he will love that kid very much. The timing's not great, but it's not as bad as Evie and Doug's had been with Tegan, or the scary two days that Lonnie and Nathan had had during senior year before Lonnie's period came and Jane had said that she'd practically cried in relief when it finally did. He'll be happy, he knows that. Maybe not right away, which he thinks is utterly horrible, but he will be.

Eventually.

* * *

"Evie told me something interesting when she and Tegan dropped by," he says, watching Mal closely. "She said she saw you at the pharmacy." That's when Mal freezes, but he keeps talking, "She said that you were looking at pregnancy tests. And she saw you grab one."

"Ben-"

"Mal, are you pregnant?" he asks. She glances up at him, an unreadable look in her eye, and slowly shakes her head. "You're not?"

"No, I'm not. I thought I was, but I'm not." She looks over at him, slight tears in her eyes. "And I'm _glad_ I'm not, Ben. Is that so awful? I want maybe one more kid, _maybe_ , but not for a while yet. We can barely handle two, and we've been watching Tegan a lot for Doug and Evie while they're adjusting to having Henry and you're still recovering from the surgery-"

"Mal, breathe," he interrupts. She laughs slightly but takes several deep breaths, staring right into his eyes. "If it makes you feel better, I'm glad you're not, too. And not just because one of our children should probably be planned." She laughs again, but he's not sure whether this time it's out of relief or because he actually said something funny. "But if we want to wait, then we have to get serious about birth control. The whole reason Aria and Clara are alive is because we're so lax about it. It's a miracle it's only happened twice in about ten years."

"I know. We're going to try to not try this time, Ben. I mean it."

"I do, too."

* * *

 **A/N: So, yes, for now, Mal and Ben are planning to wait a little while before having more kids. But remember, time moves fast in this story. For example, I just realized that Chapter 20, only ten chapters ago, is set almost two years before this chapter. Anyways, next chapter will be up by November 13!**


	31. Dreams

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine, and neither is "Happy Birthday" in addition to all the other stuff that is never mine.**

 **A/N: Beware- What feels (To me) like a MASSIVE A/N below.**

 **Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **Also, I don't know how many of you look at my profile, where I put this information a few weeks ago, but I got my personal tumblr and you should check it out. The url is little-miss-antisocial dot tumblr dot com, if you want to know, and I might even start posting teasers of chapters there if I know people are looking at it. I mostly just post when stories are updated, which I know is redundant to any of you who follow this story, but normally I update several stories at once and clump them all into one announcement post on my tumblr, with a brief summary and then link to the chapter.**

 **I-3-ur-story** **: Question- Besides those two, Audrey and an OC named Ryder, one of Rapunzel and Eugene's sons, are married, and then Jay and Carlos are dating. We also know that Chad has a girlfriend, but who remains unknown. Suggestion- I have planned out all the kids, I think, ('Think' being the operative word) and it looks like there will actually wind up being more boys then girls.**

 **KittyLover123:** **First review- Do you mean emotionally or just in general? In general, Mal would still be the queen of Auradon and they would continue to live in the castle with Belle and Adam. They would be well cared for. Emotionally, especially if Aria and Clara are really young, they would probably grow up mostly knowing about Ben through stories, and Mal would probably eventually move on once Aria and Clara were older. Second Review- In this story, Carlos and Jane never dated but rather became very, very close friends. Carlos is dating Jay in this, which was revealed in Chapter 27.**

 **This chapter is going to get** _ **weird**_ **for a little while. Bare with me; I promise all will be okay.**

 **P.S. Totally made up Ben and Mal's birthdays (December 2 and March 31, respectively).**

* * *

Mal wakes up to Ben's voice whispering, "Happy birthday," into her ear, and she smiles.

March has been a long month. Ben had made a fuss about being treated like a china doll as he recovered from the surgery at the beginning of the month, but she'd simply retorted that it was payback for how she'd been treated while pregnant with Aria. The rest of the month had been filled with stress from all areas, ranging from her children to simply the day-to-day life of being the queen of Auradon.

But, finally, a month of never-ending stress is coming to a close with her twenty-eighth birthday. Ben had turned twenty-eight back in December, and she had to admit that she probably could've tried a little harder on his actual gift, but what she'd given him after the girls were asleep, well… he had certainly loved _that_ part.

"Thank you. And since it's my birthday, I can sleep, right?"

"Go right ahead. I'm gonna get the girls."

"Go right ahead," she repeated, pulling the covers back up to her chin and curling up into a tight ball.

* * *

Mal wakes up in a strange room, and she's incredibly worried about the fact that it's not in her and Ben's bedroom.

In fact, it looks disturbingly like her dorm room at Dragon Hall.

"Ben? Ben?! BEN!"

"What're you doing?" Evie- a very young looking Evie- a sixteen year-old looking Evie- asks her, peeking her head around the doorframe.

"I, uh… I…" She glanced down at her left hand. No rings. She pulled up her night shirt- no stretch marks. _What the hell?_

"Mal?"

"Evie, I'm going to confess to you that I'm very, very confused."

"Did something happen?"

"Well, when I went to bed, I was twenty-eight and was married with two kids."

"Well, then I guess your dream was pretty crazy, huh?"

"I guess," she mumbled. Had she really never left the Isle of the Lost? Had her eleven years in Auradon been a dream?

No, because in dreams you would just gloss over emotional and physical pain. You feel fear, and that's the most you'll ever feel. Even if she hadn't been as attached to Dude as Carlos or experienced Evie's miscarriage or Ben's appendicitis, she'd been through childbirth twice and had agonized over what would happen if the appendectomy had gone wrong. _This_ , being back on the Isle, _that_ was the dream.

"Your mom's here to see you."

"Why?"

"It's your birthday."

That clues her in even more. If it's her actual birthday, no fuss would've been made.

Her mom looks as exactly as she remembers, with her horns sticking out of her head and her long black dress. It's startling, to say the least. She hasn't seen her mom in over eleven years, twelve in October, not really. A lizard in a spell jar that she yells at when she gets drunk- and sometimes even when she's sober- doesn't count.

"I know this isn't what you had in mind for your twenty-eighth birthday, though I thought you'd appreciate the aging down."

"Mom, you-"

"I may be a lizard, but I'm not without my magic. Well, it took me eleven and a half years to be able to do this, but still."

"Why am I here?"

"Because I wanted to see you!"

"Well maybe I don't want to see you, Mom."

She knows that that stung. It hurt just saying it. She should be _happy_ to see her mom after so long.

But the thing was, she's a different person now. When she was still in high school, this would've been the best thing ever. If she was in college, she would've been angry, but probably gotten over it quickly. Now, though, anger had transformed into pure rage.

"But I wanted to talk about your daughter."

"I have two daughters, actually. And I have a husband that almost _died_ recently, and I didn't see your concern then."

"Mal, I-"

"I want to wake up now. We can finish this conversation when you're not messing up the life I've built for myself."

Maleficent made a face that made it seem like she was going to protest, but then everything faded away.

* * *

"Happy birthday dear Mal… Happy birthday to you!" Ben, Adam, and Belle sing, very in tune. Aria and Clara tried their hardest to keep up, but Clara's mostly just babbling in time with everyone else. Ben sets the strawberry shortcake in front of her and she grins up at him, pulling him down for a kiss.

She blows out the candles, but chooses not to make a wish this year. What she's got is pretty great.

* * *

 **A/N: The next update will not be until any day between November 25 and November 27, since a lot of my teachers have assigned projects/papers/tests in the weeks before Thanksgiving because once I get back from Thanksgiving break it's basically exam season. More on December updates to come later, and that information will also be on my profile and my tumblr.**


	32. Magic

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea! I hope everyone who celebrated it had a happy Thanksgiving!**

 **KittyLover123:** **First review- Mal dreamed Maleficent. Ben, Clara, and Aria did not see her back in her regular form. In reality, she is still a lizard. Second review- I have never watched Pokéman, I'm sorry to say!**

 **So this information will be posted on both my Tumblr (little-miss-antisocial dot tumblr dot com) and on my profile in the coming days, but I'm challenging myself to spend the first two weeks of December studying for my exams instead of writing. Because of that, this will not be updated again until** **December 18th** **, as that is my final day of exams and I will be itching to write again. The next Friday is Christmas, which is bound to be busy, so the next update after the 18th will be** **January 1, 2016** **.**

* * *

He had been wondering when it might happen. The day that it would be revealed if Mal's fairy blood had given the kids magical abilities.

He sure as hell isn't expecting it when it happens, however. He's simply playing with the girls while Mal is looking over Isle reports when, out of nowhere, Clara's eyes flash green. He doesn't know what that means, but considering neither he, Mal, not their children have green eyes, he's not quite sure what to make of it.

In the back of his mind, he can distantly remember Mal's story about how she and her mother had figured out she had magic- her eyes.

He doesn't think to bring it up, but Aria apparently had seen it, too, and brings it up at dinner. His parents are barely paying attention, too engrossed in the announcement of Chad's engagement that Ben and Mal had known about for a week, but Mal stiffens as soon as the words are out of Aria's mouth. He tries to ask her about it, but she won't say a word on the subject, and he knows her too well to try and press with curious ears- and not just from the girls- eager to listen it.

After dinner, Mal says that she still has some work to do- a lie if he's ever heard one, that's for sure- so Ben is in charge of bath duty.

Aria asks if she and Clara can take a bath together, which amounts to Aria in the tub and Clara in her plastic baby bathtub pulled up next to the edge so they can see each other if Aria leans over, which of course she does. Ben discovers that the fact that Clara isn't supposed to be in the bath for too long is a great incentive for Aria to let Ben wash her hair and body.

Mal is still hunched over her desk when he brings the two in from their bath, wrapped up in matching hooded towels that were designed to look like bears, but he can tell that she's not doing anything other than thinking. Clara's wiggling towards her and he manages to get her away from 'work' and the four spend the rest of the night on the bed, playing with Aria's Little People farm set that Jane had given her for Christmas.

Once the girls are both sound asleep, Ben joins Mal in their bed, where she's reading a book. Carefully marking his wife's page, he pulls the book out of her hands and sets it on the table at the side of their bed, forcing her to turn on her side and look at him.

"Yes?"

"You wanna talk about dinner?"

"Not particularly."

"Mal, if something about our daughter scares you, then I need to know."

She takes a deep breath, glueing her eyes to their room's ceiling, and he wonders what exactly this all meant.

"You remember your coronation?"

"How could I not?"

"Well, when all of you guys were frozen, I defeated my mom in a staring contest, which made her turn into a dragon."

"Which is something you've still never explained."

"My mom assumed I had magic because when I was younger, my eyes would flash a green color, and she was right, of course. Since it's engrained in my DNA, it would still work on the Isle, and so as soon as she discovered, we would have these staring contests which I never won. Until I did, of course." She pauses, but he doesn't know if she's expecting an answer from him or has more to say that she's trying to form into words. "When Aria was really young, like not even ten weeks old, it happened to her, but that was the only time that I've seen. I don't know if Clara's have flashed before now or not, but here we are."

"We should talk to Fairy Godmother," he tells her, "See what she says."

"Well, Jane didn't know she had magic until she was what, fourteen?"

"And that was because of you. Fairy Godmother might have been waiting for her to become mature enough to use it."

"I don't know. I kind of want this to be the extent of their magic. Isn't that good enough?"

"It's understandable, for sure. But I think we should talk to Fairy Godmother regardless."

"You're right, of course," she sighs, running a hand through her hair and then pecking a quick kiss to his cheek. "So. What do you wanna watch tonight?"

* * *

Fairy Godmother tells them that there's not much she can do, with the two being so young. She says to simply wait it out.

Ben knows he can do that, but he also knows that Mal wants an answer desperately. Of course, while it seems like it will be a while at this point, he knows that, in the future, it won't have seemed like long enough.

* * *

 **A/N: Not the best chapter, but you guys need an update before what's basically a month's hiatus. Big thanks again to everyone who reads and I'll see you on December 18th!**


	33. Steps

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **I'm back! Whoo! A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL THE READERS FOR PUTTING UP WITH THIS HIATUS! I don't think I say it enough but I am grateful to every single one of you, and to all the reviewers I don't respond to, it's not because I don't value your reviews, it's simply because, right now, I only respond to reviews involving clarifying or otherwise noteworthy questions. I grin at** _ **every single one**_ **and I always am so excited when I see the review number-** _ **703 at the time that I write this!**_

 **Sadly, no update next week for Christmas, but after that we return to our regularly scheduled programming!**

 **By the way, I've** _ **finally**_ **started reading** _ **Isle of the Lost**_ **, so that will start affecting this.**

* * *

When Carlos called and asked if he could take her out to lunch, she considered saying no. And even though she said yes, she strongly considered not going at all.

Yet here she is, sitting across from him at Big Momma's, with the only words either of them have said are their orders to the waiter.

The tension between the two of them sends her back to their time on the Isle, before Evie had entered their lives. She'd been, well, she'd been like her mother back then. Had she ever apologized for that? But the best thing about life is that you get to keep growing. And, even though she never thought she'd say this, maybe she should try and be the bigger person. Carlos had invited her here. Maybe she should talk first.

"So," she said slowly, playing with her straw, "Are you and Jay coming to Aria's birthday party?"

Carlos looks up in surprise.

"You want me there?"

"Aria loves her Uncle Carlos," Mal laughs, "And her Uncle Jay, of course."

"Mal?" Carlos says in a small voice, "You know I didn't mean to. It was just like calling Evie 'Evelyn.' Well, it was supposed to be."

"I know. I mean, I wouldn't admit it at the time, of course, but I know. You have no idea how frustrating it is being named after her in such an obvious way. Everybody skates around my real first name, myself included. You were at my wedding; I had them say Mal Bertha Faery as my full, legal name. It's one of the reasons I like Auradon not knowing much about us, since the Isle didn't exactly have birth certificates. I like having that private. Is that bad? Ben always says that a name is an identity. Doesn't that mean I'm supposed to be just like her?"

"Your name," Carlos says, reaching out to take her hand, "Is Queen Mal Bertha Adams. _That's_ your identity. Queen of Auradon. Ambassador to the Isle of the Lost. Wife. Mother. The best artist I have ever seen. Someone who refuses to make up words and would live on a diet of strawberries if she could and only has clothing in various shades of three colors in her closet and will put her friends and family before herself if needed. _That_ is who you are, Mal. You are not her. None of us are them. Maybe we could have been, once, but not anymore."

"You know, I think Dr. Facilier might have been wrong about you," Mal tells him after a minute, reaching up to wipe away one of the tears that had begun to fall during Carlos's speech.

"What do you mean?" he asks slowly.

"I don't think you have an Advanced Penchant for Evil. I think you have an Advanced Penchant for being a great friend."

"So, all is forgiven?" he clarifies, and she has to laugh at that.

"Yes, Carlos. All is forgiven."

"Well, on that note, what does Aria want for her birthday? Evie said she's getting her some dress-up set, so Jay and I were thinking something tourney related, just to balance the scales."

Mal laughs and leans back in the booth. She may love all of her friends equally, but she loves individual parts of them in different ways. For example, how easy conversation is between her and Carlos.

She'd missed this.

* * *

Aria's birthday party is the next weekend. Since the only children she knows are her sister and Doug and Evie's kids, it's mostly adults, which Mal hasn't minded before, but now it starts to worry her. Tegan goes to preschool and had gone to daycare before that, but that was mostly because Doug and Evie had full time jobs and no one to watch Tegan, what with Doug's whole extended family just as occupied. It's not like being the king and queen isn't a full time job, but if they're both occupied Belle or Adam or one of the staff is always around to watch the girls.

She's starting to wonder, though, if that's the best thing for Aria anymore.

She's talking with Chad and his fiancée by the refreshments when Chad's sister comes running up to them, squealing, Ben in tow. She grabs Mal's wrist, too, and starts hauling them over to the bouncy castle.

"Where are we going?" Mal asks. She'd already spent almost an hour bouncing in the castle with Ben and the girls, and last she knew, they were with Adam by the grill. (She knew she'd regret getting him that 'THE GRILL WON'T LIGHT ITSELF' apron for Father's Day, but she didn't expect it so soon.)

"All I know is Evie sent her," Ben laughs, squeezing her hand before saying, "Is something wrong?"

"I want to run something by you tonight; don't let me forget." He pulls their intertwined hands up to his mouth and kisses hers in promise before dropping it.

They stop by the grill, where Clara and Aria are standing next to each other, Aria holding Clara's arms above her head. Evie stands close by, holding her phone out, and it looks like she's filming something.

"E?" she calls, and in that moment, she glances back down at her daughters.

Who are slowly taking steps towards them.

Clara's first steps.

"Ben?" she asks breathily, to make sure she's not hallucinating, and he nods before bending down.

"Come here, Clara, come to Daddy," he cooes, and once they're only a step or two away- and at a nod from Mal- Aria proudly lets go of Clara's hands and the little girl stumbles forward and into her father's waiting arms.

Aria had taken her first steps when she was really young, not even ten months old, and Ben and Mal had been waiting with bated breath the past month and a half for when Clara took hers.

"We're so proud of you, baby," Mal cooes, running her hand over Clara's head, where her hair stubbornly refuses to grow out any more than the length it's been for several months.

"I helped!" Aria says loudly, and everyone around laughs, so Mal scoops her up, too.

"And I'm very proud of you, too. How are you already three, huh?"

"I a big girl now," she says sternly, and everyone laughs again.

"Yes, yes you are."

She can't help but think back to Carlos's words, about her identity as Mal Adams. She glances at the girl in her arms, and looks up to lock her gaze on her adoring husband and baby girl, and she can't help but be beyond proud.

* * *

"What was it you wanted to talk about?" Ben asks as Mal walks into their bedroom after putting Clara down. She sits down on the edge of the bed and closes the folder Ben had been sifting through to make sure she has his full, undivided attention.

"I want to enroll Aria in preschool."

"What's brought this on?" Ben asks, pulling his legs up closer to his chest in order to make more room for Mal on the bed.

"Her party today. Ben, there were three other kids there. We had a bouncy house for four children."

"The adults used that way more than the kids. Did you see Jane, Lonnie, and Carlos in that thing?"

"Yes, I did, but that is not my point. The only kids she knows are her sister, Tegan, and Henry. And Henry's like six months old, so he doesn't really count. But I also think it would be good for her. I mean, she's three years old now. And depending on when we want to send her to kindergarten, she needs to probably start within the next year."

"Just Aria? Would we enroll Clara in daycare, too?"

"We could. We could gain back a whole thirty minutes to ourselves."

"Why only thirty minutes?"

"Because, factoring in the addition of driving them to and from daycare, those thirty minutes are the time it takes for them to go down for their naps and then bounce back. The rest of the time we spend as the King and Queen."

"And as parents."

"True."

"God, what I could accomplish with thirty extra minutes," Ben sighs wistfully, "I could nap."

"I could take long baths."

"We could do grown up stuff," he says with a conspiring wink, and Mal shoves him playfully, though even she can't deny the smirk on her face at that.

"I don't know if I could handle it, though," she says after a beat, "Both of them gone."

"Me neither," he agrees, "Though, we'll have to get used to it, what with them going to Auradon Prep."

"That's not for like another eleven years. We can build up to it. Besides, it's like twenty minutes away."

"So, Aria's going to preschool?"

"Aria's going to preschool."

* * *

 **A/N: And that's the chapter! Quick question before I depart: Do you guys have anyone specific you want to see as Chad's fiancée? Jane, Lonnie, Anxelin, any** _ **canon**_ **Isle of the Lost descendants, and OCs are up for grabs. Suggest in the reviews, and for Isle of the Lost/OCs you don't** _ **have**_ **to suggest a specific character, but you totally can if you have anyone specific in mind**


	34. Vacations

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **I APOLOGIZE THOROUGHLY FOR NOT HAVING UPDATED SINCE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. I HAD STREP THROAT AND PNEUMONIA TOGETHER SO AT FIRST I HAD NO ENERGY TO DO ANYTHING, INCLUDING WRITE, AND THEN ONCE I HAD AT LEAST THE ENERGY TO SIT UP I HAD A BIT OF WRITER'S BLOCK SO I'M SO SORRY THIS IS SO LATE AND THANK YOU FOR PUTTING UP WITH ME.**

 **Also whenever this kind of stuff happens I put it on my profile so if I ever miss an update again, check there, and you can get there by clicking the 'what-is-a-social-life' by the story image.**

 **I don't know how many of you guys saw it, but I posted a one-shot comprised of Christmas-themed vignettes about Jay, Carlos, Evie, and Mal's first Christmas in Auradon last week. It's called** _ **Candy Canes and Mistletoe**_ **if you want to read it and can be found on my profile.**

 **We now return to our regularly scheduled programming in terms of updating!**

 **KittyLover123:** **Ben and Mal are not 100% positive their kids even have magic beyond their eyes, since Aria and Clara are only ¼ fairy. Also, I'm going via** _ **Wicked World**_ **canon where they would have to try a spell to know for sure, and then they'd also want to make sure their children were mature enough to handle magic, if they had it, so they probably wouldn't broach the subject until Aria and Clara are at least ten.**

 **Bay:** **While I'm not familiar with the Disney version of** _ **King Arthur**_ **, that does not rule it out entirely. Thanks for the suggestion!**

 **Guest who asked about a third kid :** **I cannot reveal whether they will or not, but I do know that they will at least talk about it.**

 **Ben's princess :** **The eye colors I kind of guessed on based on pictures I pulled up of the two of them. Based on** _ **The Isle of the Lost**_ **descriptions, I might go back and change them, but I'm not sure.**

 **Hai:** **Maybe, maybe not. Do you think she can learn to love?**

 **This is a longer chapter than normal, too!**

* * *

"This is called a French braid," Evie says, beginning to work her hands expertly in Tegan's curly brown hair. "It's like braiding, but basically backwards. You try."

Ben takes a deep breath and begins doing the doll's hair, copying Evie exactly.

Aria's hair had grown out to the length where she could do stuff with it, and she wanted stuff done with it, "Like Tegan does!"

However, Ben and Mal had both quickly discovered that neither was exactly adept at doing the hair of a hyperactive three year old who complained that the brush hurt her head no matter how gentle her parents were and, in the end, it didn't look like Tegan's, which resulted in two hour tantrums that made her parents late for senate meetings.

So Ben (After losing a bet) politely asked Evie for some hair-styling lessons. While highly unlikely they'll be able to do anything about how the brushing hurt, he hopes that maybe, if her hair looks more like Tegan's in the end, maybe she'll sit through it with less screaming. Jane says that, if Clara continues to watch Aria scream whenever a brush comes within an inch of her head, _Clara_ will then start to do that, and Ben refuses to put up with that with her, because he can already tell that Clara is going to be hell when she's older. She went straight from walking to running and they'd had to babyproof parts of the castle that Aria had never even gotten to.

"Does this look any good?" he asks, glancing down at his attempt of French braiding.

"It's better then some of Doug's attempts at French braiding," Evie concedes after a moment, grabbing a ribbon and wrapping it around the hair tie in Tegan's hair. "There you go, sweetie."

"Thank you, Mommy!" she says loudly before skipping into the kitchen, calling out for her father as she does so.

"You guys really have done a great job with her. With both of them."

"Don't give us too much credit for Henry yet. Or Tegan, for that matter. I wouldn't be surprised if we find some way to screw them up. But so far… yeah, I think we're doing pretty well. You and Mal are, too."

"Thanks," Ben replies, undoing the doll's hair and passing it to Evie so she can do the hairstyle the doll always had to have, according to Tegan.

"You guys gonna have another one?" she asks, separating the doll's hair into even sections.

"We haven't talked about it yet. How about you guys?"

"I think two is enough for us. Especially since Henry's already decided he wants to be the problem kid. But enough about that. Are the girls excited for the big vacation?"

Adam and Belle had decided that, for Ben and Mal to avoid stress, to go on a vacation over the summer. The two had decided on Belle's Harbor near Charmington, which was not an overly popular tourist destination and, by keeping their trip underwraps from the media, would stay that way, and a nice beach that Ben had been to several times before. Mal, while having learned to swim back in college, had still never been to a beach, which was one of the reasons Ben had suggested it.

"Aria is. Clara still doesn't fully understand the concept of a beach." Evie laughs at that and expertly does the doll's hair, setting it in the stand on the side table.

"I still can't believe Mal's agreed to go to a beach. She is going to _burn up_. And the sand- oh, you're going to have to film it."

"My mom will make us videotape everything, so don't worry; there will be evidence of Mal lounging on the beach. If parents of two toddlers can lounge on the beach, that is."

"Well good luck. She'll be a ray of sunshine there, I'm sure."

"A ray. I admire your optimism."

"It was more sarcasm than optimism, but take it how you will."

* * *

"Isn't this great?" Ben calls as he opens the door of their hotel room, Clara clinging to his back and Aria holding the hand that he isn't using to pull his bag.

"MY BED!" Aria shouts, running and jumping up onto one of the huge beds in the room. Clara starts jumping up and down on his back, making it very clear she wants to join her sister, so Ben throws her down gently next to Aria on the bed.

"Oh, that needs a picture. Mal, come see this!"

Mal comes in with about six bags on her, panting from the August heat. She looks very ready to kill Ben and put his head on a platter, though he's not sure what he's done.

"Mal?"

"Is there a reason I had to carry all this cra- _stuff_ up?"

"I told you not to pack so much stuff."

"You didn't answer my question."

"I had the girls," he says lamely. "You know what, why don't we get unpacked, and then we'll go to the beach."

"I hungry," Clara announces, crawling into a sitting position on the bed.

"You just had chips in the car!" he replies.

"I could eat," Mal responds, setting her bags down. "Mommy and Daddy are going to unpack first, though, and then we'll get some food."

"This is my bed!" Aria tells her, "I sleep here."

"Yeah, you and Clara are sleeping in this bed and Mommy and Daddy in the other."

"No!" she protests, "I don't wanna share with Clara! She kicks and takes covers!" Considering the only times that Aria and Clara have ever slept in the same bed that wasn't a crib was New Year's Eve and after the Charmington's Valentine's Day ball, he feels as if she can't have a strong opinion about that.

"Well, Mommy snores, and you don't see me complaining," Ben tells her, and Mal slaps his side.

"I want my own bed! I _never_ get my own bed at home!"

He and Mal exchange a glance at that, though she does have a point; he and Mal had decided to keep Aria in her crib a little while longer, so maybe this is simply her wanting… independence?

If only he could meet up with Jane. She would know, being a child psychologist and all. He really just needed to have her around 24/7 to interpret his daughters for him.

"But you're going to sleep with Clara and it's going to be super fun, okay?" Mal tries to reason, coming to sit on the side of the bed. Ben decides to take the girls' distraction as a chance to unpack, so they can get to the beach sooner.

"Supe fun!" Clara shouts.

"I wanna sleep on the couch," Aria says, and Mal and Ben glance at each other. On the one hand, it would stop any and all complaints from Aria about not having her own bed. On the other hand, their three year old would be sleeping on a couch without a safety net, and that worries him.

A couch that Ben knew to be a pull-out couch.

He files that information away for later. He has a feeling it will be important.

"I guess you can sleep on the couch?" Mal says slowly, looking for confirmation from Ben, who nods. "Okay then, it's settled. Beastie will take the couch, I'll take that bed, and Daddy and Fey will share this one."

"Why won't Mommy and Daddy be sleeping in the same bed?" Ben asks pointedly.

"I'm sure they will be later. But not tonight."

"Why not?"

"Because apparently I snore, and the girls did not need to know that." She grabs her bathing suit and toiletry bag from the pile of bags and walks into the bathroom, slamming the door gracefully behind her. Aria and Clara are laughing from behind as he stares at the door, dumbfounded.

"You almost cursed in front of them!" he reminds her, and she opens the door, using her middle finger to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, which he gets to mean she's flipping him off in a family-appropriate way.

"Aria, do me a big favor. Use your strong arms and spank Daddy."

"I help!" Clara cheers and the two run over to Ben, repeatedly slapping his butt.

"I hate you!"

"I love you, too, honey!"

* * *

"I WANT MY OWN BED!"

"YOU CANNOT HAVE YOUR OWN BED! YOU CAN SLEEP WITH MOMMY, OR CLARA AND DADDY, OR ON THE COUCH!"

"Oh, so that's still happening," Ben mutters. Mal's face- looking like she wants to kill him, again- makes him mumble something incoherently as he decides to pull out the couch bed. He starts taking the cushions off, and, lacking a proper place to put them, decides to just kind of haphazardly throw them in a corner.

"WHY CAN'T CLARA SLEEP ON THE COUCH?" Aria shouts, and Mal glances around like she expects palace attendants to come running, asking what's the matter. To be honest, Ben's expected about three different times for them to get a noise complaint from Aria, but since it's only about seven o'clock at night, he supposes not many people are in their rooms.

"She's too small and needs the railings, which won't go on the couch, and Mommy and Daddy are too big- Ben, are you _taking apart the couch_ , because that's not helping!"

"The couch is a pull-out couch. That means it becomes a bed that Aria can sleep on. She gets a bed, but it's still the couch. See? Everybody wins."

"Oh," Mal relents as Aria starts jumping up and down in excitement, "And you didn't mention this earlier because…?"

"Secret bargaining chip."

"Ah."

(He slept with Clara the next night, too.)

* * *

"If you put anymore sunscreen on them, they will literally be completely white. They will look like snowmen in the dead of summer."

"Ben, I have a fair complexion. The girls have inherited said complexion. If their sunscreen is not adequate enough, they will turn into little tomatoes. Do you really want that for them?" Mal asks from her beach chair, looking up at him from beneath the brim of her hat.

"I think they will be okay," he tells her, squatting down so he's on the girls' level. Evie had bought both of them three bathing suits each for the trip, though Mal had decided that only two of the ones for Clara and one for Aria were 'practical and appropriate.' Aria's is a one piece, while Clara's is a swim shirt and regular bathing suit bottoms that allow easy access to her swim diaper. The two girls are sitting together on the towel that cannot have any sand on it whatsoever, as they had quickly discovered that Clara would not touch sand if her life depended on it.

"Well, King Ben, if you say so," Mal relents, standing up and taking off her hat and cover-up. She herself is wearing what is apparently called a 'tankini' and is a two piece that covers everywhere. Mal has never been one of those girls, and would never _ever_ be one of those moms, that wears bikinis and attracts everyone's attention _that_ way, which he knows gets on Doug's nerves when Evie does it. Ben just loves that he has made a water-lover out of her. "Hey, sweetie?"

"Yeah?" he asks, reaching over to pick up Clara so she won't touch the sand as they walk down to the water.

"Are those the same swim trunks you've had for all twelve years that I've known you?" He glances down at his blue swim trunks with the family crest adorning them, then back to her, nodding.

"They're my lucky trunks! I only wear them for special occasions, and this, is a special occasion, I do believe, being on vacation."

"How do they still fit?" she asks teasingly, and Aria giggles.

"Good luck and sheer willpower."

They make their way down to the water and Ben and Mal take turns holding Clara and playing with Aria. The latter gets bored easily and so Mal goes with her to make a sand castle (Because Mommy builds it better, Daddy), while Clara kicks her legs and laughs and claps and he even risks standing with her in the shallow water and she tries to jump over all the waves and he's never seen his youngest daughter so happy.

"Hey, Ben! Aria and I are hungry; let's go get some lunch!" Mal calls to him after he and Clara have been alone in the water for almost two hours. He isn't going to lie; he's hungry, too, and Clara's gotta be starving, with her having to eat everything in sight at any given moment.

But Ben has an idea.

"ParentswhodealswiththeensuingtempertantrumfromClarasayswhat?" he says in a rush, and she calls back, "What?" before he yells, "YOU JUST AGREED TO DEAL WITH CLARA'S TEMPER TANTRUM THAT WILL OCCUR WHEN SHE HAS TO BE TAKEN OUT OF THE WATER!"

So he carries her out, and she cries, and he plops her into Mal's arms, and he's totally sleeping in the bed with Clara again tonight, but they're all having a very good, very happy vacation.

* * *

 **A/N: The next update will hopefully be the fifteenth, but I have make-up work that might take up my time, so I don't know**


	35. Preschool

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **So I've been gone for a long time. Turns out that, in addition to the strep I may or may not have mentioned last chapter, I also had pneumonia and a respiratory virus and I was hospitalized for a week with an IV in one hand and a pulse monitor thingy on my other, so I had poor typing capabilities. Then, after that, I got writer's block for this story on top of three weeks of make-up work, which I still have yet to finish. I apologize for leaving you hanging for so long (A month, I think) and will try to return to you all slowly but surely.**

* * *

"Alright. How are we going to play the whole Aria-gets-a-new-bed-but-Clara-doesn't situation you seem convinced on getting us into?"

"If she's starting preschool, she shouldn't still be sleeping in a crib that she can barely fit into."

"But what about Clara, Mal? 'Cause, you know, we have two kids."

"Are you accusing me of ignoring one of our children?" Mal asks dangerously, her eyebrows raising dangerously.

Ben looks absolutely terrified, and she will not deny the fact that she actually kind of likes it. They'd had frequent prank wars before she got pregnant with Aria (One of which had actually involved Evie's positive pregnancy test- oh, the look on his face then was _priceless_ , but it was even better when it happened for real), but they decided to stop them when they realized that it was probably not the best idea for their children to be introduced to some of the more… adult pranks they'd played on each other (Including but not limited to passing a friend's pregnancy test off as your own) at such a young age, and, while they hadn't restarted them per se, Ben had sure gotten awful full of himself in terms of tricking her lately. He should know by now who's the boss in their relationship.

"I would never," he replies hesitantly, slowly lowering himself onto the bed, "I just worry that Clara's going to feel left out."

"It's a bed, Ben," she laughs, wrapping her arms around his neck from her standing position in front of him, still in her the electric green dress she'd been wearing all day, though she'd taken her cursed heels off, making them virtually the same height.

"I know. But maybe we could do something for Clara. Have a little day with her or something on Aria's first day."

"Is that more for your benefit than hers, Benjamin?" she teases, "Are you going to break down when we take our daughter to school for the first time?"

"If you don't, then your heart is made of stone," he replies in manner that suggests he expects her to be sobbing right beside him, but she won't give him the satisfaction of being right.

(Until they send her off and Mal starts blubbering like an idiot.)

"My heart may have been made of stone once, but someone has made sure that that is simply not the case," she tells him, pressing a chaste kiss to his lips that deepens almost immediately.

"The girls are asleep, right?"

"Unzip me?" she says by way of response, pouting her lips a little. Ben may think he's all high and mighty now, but she has him wrapped around her pinky finger. Anything she could possibly ask for from him, she would get.

"You know, if Aria is free to get out of bed whenever she wants, this will be a lot harder," he whispers into her ear as he pulls the zipper down slowly.

"You know, there is a little thing called locking doors," she replies cheekily, stepping out of her dress and letting it fall to the floor.

"I don't think I've heard of that."

"Figures," she laughs.

* * *

Aria doesn't get to pick out her new bed, as one is simply brought into her room that matches all the other beds in the castle, but she does get to go with Evie to the fabric store to pick out whatever fabric she wants that Evie will make into sheets for her.

Ben uses the time to take Clara out for the "special day" he'd been talking about as an attempt to appease her- though Mal fails to see the excitement Ben assures her is there in transitioning from a crib to a bed.

Of course, since Ben's out, Belle almost forces her to accompany Evie, Tegan, and Aria to the fabric store, though Mal doesn't put up as much of a fight as Belle had probably been expecting. Even if it's just preschool and a new bed, Mal feels like Aria is growing up _way_ too fast. Soon, she fears, she'll be consoling her daughter about broken hearts and school stress- though, considering Ben is the only guy Mal's ever been with, she doesn't know how much help she'll be on the broken hearted front.

She does not hate the experience to the fabric store as much as she expected to, but she still feels some bile rise in the back of her throat when Evie stumbles across a hot pink, furry fabric that she desperately wants to use for Aria's sheets. Tegan and Aria are both vehemently against it, luckily, and Mal thinks she might have to take her daughter out for ice cream for saving her mother from that.

"I'll make a girly girl out of you yet, Aria Adams," Evie promises as she holds up the bright yellow fabric with the turquoise stripes on it. "Are you sure you want this?"

"E, she's already said yes like twelve times," Mal laughs.

"Mal, you know as well as I do that children change their minds at the drop of a hat." Mal makes a gesture meant to convey her concession and, after Evie buys that as well as a a sewing pattern for some doll clothes for Tegan's doll, the four wind up going out for ice cream together, and Tegan even convinces her mother and Mal to take them to the park.

"You have your gossip face on," Mal remarks as she licks the chocolate ice cream dribbling down her cone.

"I do not have a gossip face."

"Evie, look at me," she says, and Evie turns her face- eyes brimming with excitement, lips pressed together to avoid spilling whatever juicy information she has. "You have a gossip face, and you're wearing it. What did you hear?"

"So you know how Doug's cousin owns a jewelry store?"

"Yes?" Mal says. "Actually, no. He has like a gajillion cousins."

"He only has one that owns a jewelry store. Sleepy's son, probably the most active and alert person I've ever met?"

"Seth Dwarfson?" she checks, and Evie nods excitedly. "What does Seth's jewelry store have to do with anything?"

"Because Carlos came in and looked at men's engagement rings," she sing-songs, and Mal misses her mouth with her cone.

"You're kidding! Did he buy one?!"

"Seth made it sound like he didn't. Well, Doug made it sound like he didn't when he relayed the information, but it means they're thinking about it after years and years of being together."

"They still have to come clean to the rest of the group first," Mal laughs, wiping the ice cream off of her face with the napkin Evie hands her.

"Well, if they're thinking about marriage, then they're definitely thinking about that."

"Speaking of marriage, have they decided on a wedding date?"

"You mean Chad and-"

"No, Evie, I mean Audrey and Ryder, our already married friends. Of course I mean Chad and-"

"God, Mal, no need for the sarcasm!" Evie interrupts, though there's laughter dancing in her eyes. "I don't know, but they want to get married before New Year's, I think, so we can probably expect save-the-date invites soon. But speaking of Audrey and Ryder, do you know if they plan on having kids? It's been over three years, right?"

"Surprisingly, you and Audrey get along much better than Audrey and I do. If anyone knows about them there, I would think it would be you or Anxelin."

"Ah, well, we'll find out soon, I'm sure. I have a feeling all the laundry will be aired soon in the friend group."

"I think you're right."

* * *

"You ready?" Mal asks Aria, squeezing her hand in a reassuring gesture as the limo drives through the streets of Auradon.

"I scared," she whispers so only Mal can hear her, and her heart breaks a little."

"I know you'll be okay, Beastie. You'll get to play with a bunch of kids your age and eat snacks and nap. It'll be just like you were with Mommy or Daddy or Grammie or Grampy, but with more boys and girls your age."

"I don't like boys. Tegan says they have cooties."

"You like Henry."

"But Henry's a baby. Tegan says boys get cooties when they stop being babies."

"I see. Well, then you'll just have to get an extra kiss from Mommy and Daddy to keep the cooties away. Is that a good plan?"

"And Clara, too," Aria asserts.

"Of course," Mal smiles, smoothing her daughter's caramel hair. She and Ben may not be the best at styling their daughters' hair, but Mal had managed to braid Aria's into two little pigtails and tied the ends of them with a yellow ribbon to match her sunflower dress. Where her children got their love of light, happy colors is beyond her, when all they've ever seen her wear is purple, black, and electric green and Mal refused to give them perfect pink nurseries.

The limo door opens and Mal self-consciously tucks a strand of her purple hair behind her ear. If the limo isn't eye-catching on its own, her hair quickly clues everyone into who they are, which she's hated ever since she came to Auradon. Luckily, there seems to be a bunch of other parents struggling to let their little one go, so the Adams are left to their own devices.

"I scared," Aria repeats, clutching at Mal's leg.

"I think you'll love it," Ben tells her. "Lots of toys and friends."

"But Tegan and Clara are my friends, and I have toys."

"Aria, you'll love it," Ben repeats, pressing a kiss to her forehead. When he stands up, Mal can see the tears glistening in his eyes; he justs wants this to be done with so he can go cry into his pillow.

"You think so?"

"Mommy and I know so! That's why you're going!" he laughs, ruffling the hair on top of her head. "Mommy and Clara and I will all come pick you up after Clara wakes up from her nap."

"You promise?" she asks, glancing back and forth between her two parents.

"Cross my heart," Mal tells her. "Let's go inside now, okay?"

They have almost an identical exchange after they've checked in and found Aria's room. Tegan, due to being older, is in the pre-kindergarten program, so she and Aria aren't in the same class, but Mal points out two girls playing house in the back of the room and Aria's interest piques. She gives Clara and her parents one last kiss before charging into the room, where her teacher takes over. Aria looks over her shoulder and waves them goodbye, which Mal takes as the cue to leave.

"It's only a few hours," she reminds Ben as they climb back into the limo, as much for her benefit as his. He wraps his arm around her and sets Clara in between them. "You're not allowed to grow up as fast as your sister, young lady," she says, but Clara's distracted by everything she can see out the windows.

"Makes you want another, huh?" he says lightly, though they both know the weight that sentence carries.

"But not quite yet. We need to hold on to what we have before we add more to the equation, I think, right, Fey?"

"I think you're right."

"It's nice to know you value my opinion," she laughs.

"I've always valued your opinion," he says gently. "Though I did not appreciate waking up to a fake snake in our bed, Malbertha."

"'Malbertha?'" she snickers, but his dead serious face remains. "Let the prank wars be reinstated!" she cackles. He rolls his eyes, but she already knows he's planning his retaliation and grins, leaning her head on his shoulder.

* * *

 **A/N: Continue to send in if you have suggestions for Chad's fiancée! I still have yet to decide, hence the way that topic was handled this chapter, though I think this will be the last chapter I ask, since I need to come to a decision soon! Until (hopefully) the 19th!**


	36. Families

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **Guest who asked about a third kid (And all the other guests and members who've asked about a third kid)** **: I promise, I know all the secrets in terms of the future of the Adams family. I can't say any more than that.**

 **Also: this chapter will briefly reference Evie's miscarriage that was first mentioned in Chapter 21. And, if you haven't read it yet, it's fine, but this chapter kind of/sort of brings up stuff from** _ **Candy Canes and Mistletoe**_ **, but it is not a prerequisite for this chapter to have read that.**

* * *

Jay makes the winning goal and the crowd goes wild. Aria and Clara's excited cheers in his ears, in addition to Carlos and Evie's shouting at the top of their lungs and just the general volume of their box almost deafens him.

This is the first time ever that the Arendelle Frost Giants are competing against the Auradon City Beasts in the conference finals before heading into the league championships. While Chad's team is good, they've never gotten past the league semi-finals in all the years that he and Jay have been playing professionally, while Jay's team usually wins the whole league. They'd all pitched in for the biggest box in the stadium that is currently cramped with people and Aria, Clara, Tegan, and Henry have become tripping hazards more than once.

As he high fives Mal beside him, he notices Carlos sneaking out of the box.

Just a few minutes later, he's run onto the field and is kissing Jay.

"No way," Freddie laughs, walking closer to the windows.

"I believe my dear husband owes me twenty bucks," Audrey says to Ryder, pressing a kiss to his cheek and whispering something in his ear that makes him blush.

"How long has that been going on?" Anxelin asks, nodding towards the two.

"Years," Jane replies, grinning. "I've been trying to get them to do that for ages."

Jaylos trends on every social media site the next day.

* * *

Chad won't stop teasing Jay when Ben meets with them and Ryder for fittings for the wedding that Chad had somehow convinced Freddie to have on Christmas Eve. The dude is way too obsessed with the holiday.

Which, of course, means that all the suits are red and green and the boutonnieres would apparently be something Christmas themed- either holly or a poinsettia leaf. And they were forced to put on Santa hats while trying them on. A Christmas wedding, he knows, could be done really tastefully.

But, this is Chad and Freddie. It's going to the be the tackiest thing he's ever been a part of.

Ben as the best man gets the worse luck. A striped red and green tuxedo that he's sure was only picked because Freddie hates him. Well, not really, but enough to agree to him wearing a red and green striped tuxedo.

He's convinced that Ryder posts it online simply to humiliate him, and considering that, by the next morning, it has gone viral on the Internet, he really wants to punch him.

Even more so after Mal turns the photo into flyers and hangs them throughout Auradon as her next prank war attack.

And once his parents suggest getting a portrait done of him in it, he actually _does_ punch him, but Ryder only laughs and tells him to loosen up about it.

Only a few days after the punching incident is guys' night. Girls' night is happening across town, but there's talk that, now that families are expanding, of making them both every other week with girls' one and guys' the next.

And the entire time, Ryder seems to be going back and forth between brooding and exhilarated.

"You look happy," Ben comments during one of the moments of brooding and receives a slight glare in response as Ryder throws back a shot. "What's up?"

"Audrey's stopping her birth control," he replies.

"You're trying?" Doug asks and Ryder nods. "You know it'll take a few months for everything to go back to normal, right?"

"I do now," he says. "Any advice?"

"Neither Aria nor Clara were exactly planned," Ben chuckles, "It was a rarity when Mal or I actually remembered to use contraception."

"Little more than I needed to know," Ryder replies.

"Evie and I were better, especially during the tense months after her miscarriage, but not by much. Henry was at least planned, though, so we beat the Adams on that front."

"It's not a race, Dwarfson. When are you going for Number 3?"

"Never. Are you?"

"Eventually. Maybe."

"Mal's not getting any younger."

"Neither is Audrey," Ben retorts and Ryder rolls his eyes. "Just stay relaxed about the whole affair. That's what's most important, I've heard."

"Think of it as that you're not not trying," Doug adds. "But if it gets to be a year or more, look into things. Might just be luck, could be something else. Evie will help you in anyway she can."

"Fashion, chemistry, and babies, in no particular order. The Holy Evelyn Dwarfson Trinity."

Doug and Ryder both laugh, and the latter seems a lot calmer now. Ben wonders if he and Mal had been like that after they found out she was pregnant with Aria. He's sure they were.

* * *

Mal laughs as he rolls so he's hovering over her and he starts to press kisses down her neck, making her shiver, when there's a knock at their bedroom door.

"We're busy!" Ben shouts.

"Open the damn door, Adams," Chad's voice calls. Ben and Mal look at each other in confusion before he hops off the bed, pulling a shirt on over his head lazily while Mal reaches down to pick up her robe. Once it's on, he opens the door and Chad barges right in and sinks down in Ben's desk chair.

"Come in," Ben says sarcastically to no one in particular before closing the door.

"Can we help you, Chad?" Mal asks. Chad's much less of a dick than he was in high school, but Mal can hold a grudge like nobody's business, even if Chad is 95% of the way to being forgiven.

"I can't do it. I can't marry her."

Ben and Mal glanced at each other.

"You wanna elaborate more?" Ben asks.

"I can't put it into words. I just- I don't know."

"Chad, if you're not ready to get married, you need to talk to Freddie, not us," Mal tells him, crouching down beside him.

"Of course I want to marry her," Chad says, sounding almost offended.

"Then I'm afraid I don't understand what you're trying to say."

"Marriage, it's forever. It's one of the biggest, most important things you do in your life."

"And that scares you?"

"You know Freddie and I had a rocky start. What if-"

"Chad," Mal interrupts, "You can't think like that about this. No what ifs. Marriage you jump in head first and don't think of ten years down the line. You think _how can I love this person so fiercely and so much that I want to spend my life with them and how can I make them know it?_ That is how you keep up a marriage. It's what I've been doing for five years. I never thought I would even fall in love, much less get married and have kids. Freddie and Evie and Carlos and Jay and all of us who have benefitted from being here… That's our thought process on this."

Chad nods and stands up shakily, pressing a quick kiss to Mal's cheek and clapping Ben on the back as he leaves. The second the door shuts, Ben pulls Mal close.

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

* * *

 **A/N: Until March 4!**


	37. Anxieties

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **Note: If even just talking about lice makes you squeamish, I suggest skipping most of the second half of this chapter.**

* * *

As she watches Freddie and Chad do an interview on the news about their upcoming wedding, not only does she have flashbacks to doing that with Ben, but she also can't stop thinking about what an _odd_ couple they are.

The first time Freddie and Chad met, he was left completely speechless solely based on the words that came out of her mouth, which mostly consisted of what a dick he was. Well, and maybe Freddie's finger that wandered across his figure.

(She's not going to lie, she and Evie both high fived her for that.)

Then came the Junior Year From Hell, which Freddie was instrumental in until she'd had a change of heart after Ryder's kidnapping and was the reason that Audrey, Mal, and their rescue team knew where to go. Freddie had apologized for days and had even packed to return to the Isle. Chad had been the only one able to calm her down.

Throughout senior year, Freddie and Chad wouldn't stop flirting, though Freddie basically flirts with everything to cross her path. It was one of the main reasons Chad had had a lot of difficulties admitting to anyone- especially her- that he liked her, because he wasn't sure she felt the same. It wasn't until late in college that she and Chad got together.

It's so weird for Mal to see them together, but she can't deny that they just seem to _work_. With Freddie, he'd dropped his jerk persona that had been making Kit go prematurely gray for years. It's strange yet endearing, but they're happy, and after Chad's slight panic a few weeks earlier, Mal's just glad things seem to be okay with them.

"Mail's here," Ben announces as he walks into the room, passing over an envelope written in Freddie's scrawled handwriting. Knowing what it is, she grins and carefully opens it.

"His Grace King Christopher August Otto Ferdinand Charming and Her Majesty Queen Eleanor Charming of Charmington, Auradon, cordially invite you to the wedding of their son, Prince Chad Henry Thomas Charming, to Freddie Facilier on December the twenty-fourth, two-thousand and twenty-seven,'" she read. "I'd forgotten how many names Chad has."

"His family considers it commonplace, which I think explains why Kit calls himself what he does, to set him apart. The same way Chad was a jerk in high school and almost killed his parents in the process." She laughs at that, though she can't deny that Ella and Kit definitely seemed less stressed and anxious once Chad had stopped being a huge jerk.

"As if marrying a commoner wasn't enough."

"Ella's ancestors were nobility, actually. Chad probably would be getting more flack for marrying Freddie than Kit got for marrying Ella if Kit's father was still in charge," Ben replies. "So, chicken or steak? Wait, no, it's Christmas themed. Ham or turkey."

Mal laughs and pulls out the reply card, saying as she does so, "You do know that his entire family are vegetarians, right? Even if dead animals are right up Freddie's alley."

"I have faith in him."

"You're in luck. This says you can choose between the chicken parmesan and the fettuccini alfredo."

"Faith destroyed."

"C'mon, grumpy. It says they'll be from Tony's." He cracks a small smile as she puts them both down for the chicken parmesan and the girls down for the fettuccini alfredo and writes down that all four of them will be in attendance.

Mal's cell phone begins to ring and she frowns, not recognizing the number, but she answers regardless.

"Mal Adams," she answers, expecting the other person to apologize and hang up for calling the wrong number.

"Queen Adams, this is Ms. Waters at Sunnyside Daycare. I'm calling concerning Aria Adams?"

"Is Aria okay?" Mal says immediately, her fingers tightening around Ben's arm. He's watching her with fear shining in his eyes, both of her reaction and for what she said.

"She's fine, Queen Adams. We were doing a lice check and it looks like Aria might have some. We can't keep her at school with knits in her hair."

"Of course. Me or my husband will be right down to get her."

"Oh, Queen Adams, before you hang up."

"Yes?"

"I recommend you take her and probably her sister to a lice treatment company. I'll give you or King Adams the number when you pick her up."

"Thank you, Ms. Waters. One of us will be there within the hour." She hangs up and takes a deep breath, but she's still holding onto Ben's arm for dear life.

"Mal, you're scaring me. Is Aria okay?"

"She's fine. She just has lice, or so they say," Mal replies, pulling on a sweatshirt and fur boots. If the queen can't go pick up her daughter in leggings and a sweatshirt, than who the hell can? "I'm going to go get her, and then we're supposed to get her and probably Clara to a treatment company. We should probably be checked, too."

"Do you want me to? Aren't you having a spa day with Lonnie in like fifteen minutes?"

"Shit," Mal says, standing up and running a hand through her purple hair. "Maybe you should. But what about Clara?"

"She needs to be checked too, right?"

"Yeah, but she's only been napping for," Mal checks her phone, "Ten minutes. Someone needs to stay with her, and your parents are busy."

"We do have a full staff at our disposal."

"You know how that makes me feel when we unload our children onto someone out of the family. And I didn't tell her that someone else would be here when she woke up. If it was your parents or Evie or somebody, she wouldn't panic as much, but staff, even Chip-"

"Mal, breathe," he tells her, standing up to hold her shoulders. She complies, but only because he's purposefully trying to be intimidating but is failing and she finds it adorable. "I will go get Aria and then we will come back here. You purposefully scheduled this appointment to coincide with Clara's nap, so you should be back in time for her to wake up, and then we will all go to this place together, okay?"

"Are they going to think I'm a terrible mother for my daughter getting lice?"

"No one will ever think that."

"Ben. I know there's still people in Auradon who don't support this."

"They're idiots. Every single one." He kisses the top of her head and she sighs, leaning against his chest and wrapping her arms around his midsection. "Now, go have your fun with Lonnie. Go. Forget all about this lice stuff."

"You're sure we've got this?"

"Go, Mal." She kisses him quickly on the lips before grabbing her purse and heading out to the front of the castle, where Lonnie stands, grinning, in front of a limo.

* * *

 **A/N: Do you ever just have ideas kind of fall on top of you and hit you in the head as if they were a cinderblock? That's what this chapter was. A cinderblock dropped from the sky that gave me the much-needed direction for this chapter.**

 **I know this chapter is cliffhanger-esque, but it will be resolved next chapter.**

 **Also, in media, Prince Charming has no official first name (The 2015 movie strongly implies that 'Kit' is nothing more than a nickname), and there's confusion if Charming is a nickname or a last name.** _ **Descendants**_ **canon presents "Charming" as being the last name, and since royalty normally have multiple names (Aside from this fic's Clara and Aria), I divided the names between him and Chad: Thomas, from ABC's** _ **Once Upon A Time**_ **; Christopher, from a 1997 movie based off of Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical; Henry, according to a French TV commercial for the DVD of the original movie; and then Otto August Ferdinand from a 1971 episode of** _ **The Wonderful World of Disney**_ **(Sources: Disney Wiki)**


	38. Solutions

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **Note: If lice makes you squeamish, I suggest skipping mostly the final part of this chapter and some of the beginning.**

* * *

Ben taps his fingers against the leather of the limo seat restlessly. He'd promised Mal that he and Aria would be back by the end of Clara's map, but there was apparently a pretty bad car crash up ahead and they'll be stuck in traffic for who knows how long. He considers using the whole "I'm-the-king" thing, but that would just cause too many questions and make it likely that there would be cameras at Sunnyside and the last thing Mal needs right now is to have it broadcasted all over the news that Aria has lice.

Out of nowhere, the limo starts moving and Ben glances out the window to see them taking a detour around the accident. He's sure he'll learn more about it at dinner that night, but right now he's too relieved to care.

They pull up in front of Sunnyside fifteen minutes later and Ben is out of the car before the driver can open the door for him. After an apologetic glance at the driver, he hurries inside and quickly finds the nurse's office, where Aria is sitting contently, sucking on a bright blue lollipop.

"Hi, Daddy!" Aria cheers, waving a hand covered in purple and green paint.

"Hi, sweetie," he says, crouching down in front of her, "Why is there paint all over your arm?"

"I was painting a picture for Mommy, but then we had to clean up and then we had to come here. Why didn't I get to go back to class, Daddy?"

"King Adams, thank you for arriving so quickly," the adult that comes out of the bathroom says, "I'm Geraldine Waters, the nurse here at Sunnyside."

"Hello," he says, because he's not sure what to say to the nurse. Why, exactly, this preschool happens to have one, he's not entirely sure. He'd never heard Evie mention preschools having nurses back when she and Doug had been hunting relentlessly for a daycare for a two-month old Tegan years ago, but maybe that was why the two had picked Sunnyside in the first place and suggested it for Aria.

"So, as you know, we found knits in Aria's hair, though we didn't find any live bugs," she says, walking over to her desk and pulling out a business card. "This is the number for the treatment company. It's all natural, very effective, and I've used it for my own children."

"Thank you," he says, tucking the card into his pocket and then turning back around to Aria. "C'mon, sweetie; we're gonna go home."

"Am I sick?" she asks, tilting her head to look at him in confusion.

"Sort of. Mommy and I will explain once she's back from the spa with Aunt Lonnie and Clara's woken up from her nap, okay?"

"Okay!" she chirps, sliding down from the seat clumsily and taking his hand. "Do I have to be super duper quiet when we get home?" she asks in a whisper.

"Not super duper, but still quiet," he replies in the same tone, squatting down to straighten the big green bow in her hair. "So," he says, standing up, "You ate lunch, right?"

"No," she announces, and he glances at her in confusion.

"Why not?"

"The tatoes had ham in them. I don't like ham, so I didn't eat the tatoes. I want pizza!" she says, pronouncing pizza as 'pi-zuh' in her adorable manner.

He supposes he should probably correct her on potatoes and pizza, but they sound so cute he doesn't bother.

"Well, we gotta make sure we're home before Clara wakes up from her nap, and you're supposed to have a nap, too, so maybe we'll ask Lumière to make us some, okay?"

All she says is "PIZZA!" so he takes it as agreement and hoists her into her seat in the limo and making her giggle when he tickles her neck.

Of course, she falls asleep on the drive and Ben sighs. When she's tired, Aria doesn't behave and won't listen, so he has no interest in waking her up. So instead, once they arrive back at the castle, he carefully takes her out of the car seat and up to her room, all without her waking up.

 _Point Dad._

* * *

He asks Lumière to make pizza that the girls can snack on when they wake up (As long as they promise not to tell Mal, of course), but it's ready a lot sooner than he anticipated and he's having trouble not eating it all by himself.

The door to his and Mal's room opens and Mal is on the other side, still in her boots, leggings, and old Auradon City University sweatshirt, but with new bright green and purple nail polish on her fingers.

"Good spa day?" he asks, watching her as she flops onto the bed beside him, burying her face into his shoulder. "How's Lonnie?"

"Good. She told me all about her trip to China and showed me a picture of her new boyfriend."

" _New_ boyfriend? Is that what she still considers Harry after three months?"

"She said they broke up right before she left, so basically Harry's been lying to us for ten weeks. Chris- the new boyfriend- is the cameraman that went with her and she said that they went to a bar one night and then one thing lead to another-"

"She's not pregnant, is she?"

"I said the same thing, and she said that, after her scare senior year, she's not that stupid, which I took offense to considering Aria was not at all planned and Clara only sort of. Speaking of the girls, have you explained everything?"

"Not yet; I told Aria I wouldn't until you and Clara were both present and then Aria fell asleep in the car, since it was nap time back at Sunnyside, I believe. There's pizza over there because she apparently didn't eat the lunch because the mashed potatoes had ham in them."

"This picky eating better just be a phase," she groans as she stands up. "You want Aria or Clara?"

"Considering I put both girls down, I better get to pick," he laughs, standing up alongside her. She playfully smacks his arm in response, stretching on her tiptoes before letting him wrap his arms around her waist. "I haven't seen you in this in ages. I forgot how much I liked it," he teases as he starts to kiss her neck.

"Well it is yours, after all," she replies, gently pushing him away, "And we have bigger fish to fry than your sexual appetite. Aria or Clara?"

"Clara," he says, then, as she walks out of the room, he realizes what she said. "The sweatshirt's _mine_?"

* * *

The girls are restless, and even Ben won't deny that he's slowly losing it, too. The treatment facility has only two employees in, but apparently one isn't authorized for treatment- whatever that means- and the other is busy with another lice infested customer, so they've been waiting for almost an hour.

"I hate waiting," he sighs, leaning his head back against the wall as his eyes flit over to the girls, who are playing over at the waiting room kitchen.

"You could be being productive," Mal says without looking up from her laptop, where she's reading over notes for a speech she wants to give on her new Isle of the Lost program idea.

"Not all of us carry our laptops virtually wherever we go."

"Well what did you expect you'd be doing?"

"I thought I would be able to stream Chad's game on my phone and that Clara would watch with me while Aria was getting treated, but my phone died, because that just seems like the kind of day today is." Mal gives him a small smile before digging around in her purse and producing the phone charger.

"I love you," he says in response as he takes it from her and plugs it in.

"Love you, too," she chuckles as she returns her attention to her laptop screen.

"Aria Adams," the lady calls, and the family of four makes their way to the back room. "Now, when you called, you said the school had only found nits and had suggested that your whole family get checked, right?"

"That's right," Ben replies, helping Aria up into the chair and Mal sets Clara up with the dollhouse in the corner. The lady nods and begins checking Aria's hair. After a few minutes, she turns to them and says, "I'm fairly certain she doesn't actually have lice."

"I'm sorry, what?" Mal laughs.

"There are these things that they call pseudonits, which basically just means she has a dry scalp."

"So it's like dandruff, then?" Ben checks, and the lady nods.

"Young girls are very likely to get them, though I'm surprised she has them at such a young age."

"I have a dry scalp, too; that's probably why," Mal supplies. "So, are we good?"

"Well, there is a charge for the head check, and did anyone in the class have lice?"

"Aria, was anybody else picked up early?" he asks his daughter, who says, "Only Jessica because she always leaves after lunch."

"Then I think checking you three wouldn't be worth it. The head check is fifteen dollars."

After paying and thanking the lady, they made their way back to the waiting limo.

"Well that was a waste of time," Ben sighs.

"I'll make it up to you," Mal whispers in his ear, pressing a kiss to his neck.

"What's got you in such a good mood?"

"Being a queen and kids are stressful, spa days relax me immensely."

"Then you clearly need to get spa days more often," he laughs, making sure Aria and Clara are both securely in their car seats before giving the driver the all clear sign.

"Well, I won't complain about that."

* * *

 **A/N: Pseudonits are a real thing, I promise.**

 **UPDATE 3/25/16: I know I said hopefully by the 18th, but I'm still working on the chapter, so April 1st is the current date I'm trying for. Thank you for your patience!**


	39. Halloween

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **I'm sorry for not updating the last two weeks; the weeks vanished before my eyes and I had a dance one weekend, a trip the next, and way too much homework.**

* * *

Mal takes Aria's hand as Ben leads the charge into the costume shop, Clara riding on his shoulders and laughing as he runs around and makes noises like an airplane.

"Ben, take her down before you go through the door!" she yells and he stops, just inches away from the door, which is not tall enough to fit the both of them if Clara continues to ride on her husband's shoulders.

"Right." Aria giggles as Clara is brought down from her perch, but Ben still runs through the door at top speed, and Mal can hear Clara's laughter all the way from outside.

"So, Aria, what are we looking for?" Mal asks as they follow behind.

"I wanna be a baller- baller," Aria stops, struggling to get the word out.

"Ballerina?"

"Yeah! I wanna be a balrina!" she affirms, all but skipping over to where Ben is trying on different masks.

"Beastie or Fey?" Mal calls to Ben.

"Well, considering Fey hasn't learned how to manipulate me just yet, I think I'll take her," he replies, hoisting Clara up higher in his arms.

"Aria does not _manipulate_ you, Ben. She's simply learned at a rather young age that she has her father wrapped around her little finger."

"That's true," he agrees. "If and when we have a third kid, it better be a boy, because I don't think I could handle _four_ girls having me wrapped around their fingers. I can barely handle the three I've already got." Mal laughs and leads Aria over to where she can already see tutus in every color imaginable.

Aria, loaded up with tutus of virtually every color, insists on going into the dressing room by herself. Knowing she'll inevitably need some help, Mal waits just outside the door.

Her eye catches on a display right next to the dressing rooms. It's loaded up with costumes inspired by the villains currently residing on the Isle of the Lost- why, Mal isn't _quite_ sure, but she has an idea: Giving those in the hero costumes someone to vanquish.

And there, in the middle, is a hat with horns peeking out of it, with a black robe and staff hanging next to it.

Maleficent.

Mal walks over to the display and picks up the horns, twirling them around in her hand. Her father's DNA had seemed to prevent any horns for her or the girls, which she's thankful for, but she can still remember so clearly her mother's disappointment when she, no older than Aria at the time, had asked why she didn't have horns like her mother. It was the first time that Maleficent had ever talked about her father to her face.

 _Evil isn't born; it's made_ she remembers Ben whispering in her ear near the beginning of the Junior Year from Hell, when they'd first consummated their relationship. He'd reminded her of how far she'd come, how much he loved her, back when the word had been new and foreign on their tongues. She's definitely the epitome of that sentiment, she thinks, glancing back towards the dressing room when she hears it start to creak open.

"Mommy?" Aria asks, "Can you help me?"

"Always, sweetie," Mal promises, "Just give me a minute, okay?"

"Okay!" Aria replies, slipping back into the room and not bothering to shut the door all the way. Mal gently sets the hat back down on the display before heading in the direction of her daughter's dressing room.

Her mom might have been a shitty excuse for a parent, but goddamn it, Mal already has three years under her belt and isn't giving up anytime soon.

* * *

"Please!"

"No."

"Mal, we've never done a couples costume before!"

"Because they all suck!" Mal laughs, gesturing wildly to show all the corny options in front of them.

"But this one's adorable."

"I am not dressing up like a piece of bread with jelly smeared on it, Ben."

He pouts and Mal exchanges a glance with Lonnie beside her, who is holding in her laughter like she's on the verge of tears. Chris, who is very different than what she'd been expecting of Lonnie's boyfriend, stands behind Ben, glancing around at all the costumes with a raised eyebrow. Belle and Adam are spending the day at SuperAdventureLand with the girls while Ben and Mal are at all day meetings. Lonnie had pulled them away during the lunch break to the mall, where they'd stumbled upon Auradon City's less family-friendly costume shop. The couples costume in question is directly beside one of a plug and an electrical socket, both strategically placed over the anatomy it corresponds to. Evie and Doug had worn something like it when Evie had been pregnant with Henry as a joke. It hadn't seemed as crude, then.

"She does have a point," Chris replies, "Most of these costumes are not worth it."

"What are the girls going as? You could try to match them."

"Aria's a ballerina and Clara is the most adorable puppy I've ever seen in my life," Ben replies.

"He's adorable when he's sappy," Mal says to Lonnie, who giggles.

"Well then one of you can go as a dog catcher and the other as a ballet instructor. Problem solved."

"What's the difference between an instructor and a ballerina?" Mal asks.

"One wears a tutu and one doesn't."

* * *

"Trick-or-treat!" Aria and Clara yell in unison when Evie and Doug's door is swung open. Evie is on the other side, her hair stuck up wildly and her lab coat on.

"Well look how adorable you all look!" she coos, grabbing a candy bowl and tossing some of the contents into the girls' bags. "Come on in; you're the last ones here."

Tegan and Henry are on the couch watching one of the Casper the Ghost movies, Anxelin and Freddie watching it with them. Mal vaguely wonders how Anxelin is able to stomach watching a ghost movie with the daughter of Dr. Facilier, who corrects almost everything. Aria and Clara clamber onto the couch with all of them while Evie leads her and Ben back to the kitchen, where everyone else is already gathered.

"Wine?" Evie asks Mal, who nods. "White or red?"

"Red." She follows Evie over to the fridge and says, "A little birdie told me you might be selling the house." Evie gives a small smile as she pours the liquid into the glass. "Any particular reason why? Surprise third kid? Changed your mind about a third kid?"

"No, no third kid," Evie laughs, handing her the wine glass, "But Sunnyside and Auradon Prep are both across town from where we are right now, so we wanna move closer that way. Plus, Auradon Prep is only 9-12, and Tegan's teacher thinks that the K-8 closest to us doesn't really seem like a good fit for her, since they never leave the classroom except for lunch and recess. At least at Auradon Academy, they go out of the room for PE and art and music and all that other stuff, but we can't send her there because we don't live on the castle's side of Auradon City. And we can never have Dwarfson family stuff at our house, even though it's definitely our turn by now. We can barely fit all of you all comfortably," she says, gesturing around. "We haven't talked with Tegan and Henry about it yet, but we're definitely thinking about it a lot."

"I can tell," Mal replies. "Jane won't like you leaving her on this side of town, though."

"Auradon City isn't that big; I'm sure she'll get over it."

"Yeah, but think about it. Chad's going to inherit within the next year, meaning he and Freddie will probably move to Cinderellasburg after they marry and then go to Charmington once he inherits. Then we've got Ryder and Audrey, who inherit Corona once they have a child, and we all know they've been trying. Travel is easy, but Jay and Carlos are visiting less and less from Arendelle, especially now that Carlos is doing his residency. We're all spreading out and I know you'd actually be moving _closer_ , but it's still weird."

"Yeah, I guess it is," she agrees.

"Who's going to take the kids out trick-or-treating?" Doug asks as he pokes his head into their conversation.

"I can," Evie replies easily. "Mal, you wanna come?"

"Sure," Mal agrees.

Clara falls asleep after only five houses and Aria doesn't last much longer, but the girls are smiling when she and Ben tuck them in that night, and she can't ask for much more than that.

* * *

 **A/N: The next update will hopefully be April 8!**


	40. Adaptations

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **This has a large-ish time skip… goes from Halloween to Aria's birthday the following June.**

 **Also, this chapter once again references Evie's miscarriage, though nothing is described other than the fact that she had one.**

* * *

Ben is most definitely not hiding at his own child's birthday party.

Except, he is, because now that Aria's finished her first year of preschool and Clara's already enrolled to start in the fall, not only does he feel old, but it also means there's a shit ton of kids running around Litwak's and their parents are all "supervising" them, adults he's expected to actually converse with. He's the king, which means no one really knows what to talk about with him. He's the king who married a VK, _Maleficent's_ VK, to make matters worse, shortly after graduating college and became a father only two years later.

They're not _saying_ he's an embarrassment to the Adams name but…

They sure are thinking it.

"Yo Adams," a voice calls, and Ben sighs, leaning his head against the door of the bathroom stall before slowly pushing it open to see Chad grinning cheekily next to the paper towel dispenser, two beers in hand.

"How'd you know I was in here?"

"Because when we played hide-and-seek together at functions as kids, you _always_ hid in the bathroom. Beer?" Ben takes it, but makes no move to open it.

"Why are you here?"

"In the bathroom, or are you like high or something and you're going to subjugate me to hours of existential questions," Chad teases, opening his own beer and taking a sip. His arm movement causes the automatic dispenser to make a loud noise as it shoots out a paper towel, making Chad jump and slosh beer. Ben laughs.

"I meant more at the party when Aria's _actual_ birthday's tomorrow and you're coming over for dinner before you and Freddie leave for Charmington next weekend."

"Freddie said she wants to get in practice." Ben raises an eyebrow, and Chad chokes on his drink. "No, she's not pregnant, like literally on her period, 100% not pregnant. Doug and Evie's situation with Tegan taught apparently everyone but you and Mal what contraceptives are."

"What about Lonnie's senior year pregnancy scare?"

"The key word was _scare_. No one cared then."

"You also know that, while Henry was planned, Evie's miscarried baby was not?"

"Fine, Tegan's conception taught those of us who were not in super serious relationships at the time what contraceptives are." Ben sighs, but there's a smile tugging at his lips that he's not even going to try to hide.

"So, you excited to start playing for the Charmington Papillons?" he teases, trying to change the subject, and since he knows that Chad is slightly annoyed that the translated name of his new team is 'butterflies.'

"For the one season I'll get before my parents make me have to get serious about inheriting?" Chad asks somewhat bitterly.

"Can't you pass it to Ellie if you wanted to?"

"Girls can't inherit in Charmington, though I know Mom and Dad have been trying tirelessly to fix it ever since the Beasts recruited me. They want me to keep playing tourney as much as I want to keep playing tourney."

"Well, maybe you'll get lucky," Ben answers.

"Maybe. C'mon- it's time for cake."

"Oh joy. Sugared up toddlers. Great idea."

"You get to send them home after."

"Let them eat cake!"

* * *

Aria sits up in excitement as Lumière begins to walk into the dining room with her cake the next night. Four layers of half-chocolate and half-vanilla cake, even though Aria doesn't particularly like chocolate.

"It's for Clara," she'd explained when asked by her parents what extra special cake she wanted at her family birthday party. "She has to eat vanilla at my friend party. She can have chocolate at dis one."

Between the sisterly bonding and the trouble she still has with the 'th' sound, Ben had almost teared up.

Now, though, as Lumière had placed the cake on the table in front of her and the dining room is filled with a mix of 'Happy Birthday' in both French and English and Adam is dancing his special birthday dance, Flynn trying to join in and failing miserably, he's _definitely_ tearing up.

He remembers Aria's and Clara's births like they were both yesterday- he had barely fallen asleep when Mal had groaned and woken him up, thinking she'd wet herself and heading to the bathroom. With Clara, she'd noticed what was happening _before_ her water had actually broken, but it was almost four AM when she'd woken up, and admitted later it had probably started a lot earlier than she'd noticed it.

There's no way his oldest daughter's already four, and Clara will be two in just about a month. It's just not possible for them to get so old so fast.

After cake, Aria, still on a sugar high, opens her presents. Clara makes it her job to pick up all the wrapping paper and deposit it in the the trash bag… except for the bows. If they're just a ribbon, Clara asks Evie to put it in her hair, but the sticky bows wind up on his, his father's, and Chad's heads. Jane and Lonnie take pictures, but Lonnie's, he knows, are for blackmail material rather than amusement. Sometimes, it gets on his nerves that Lonnie's career basically allows her to do that without him getting in the way. Damn investigative journalists.

Jay and Carlos are about to leave when Audrey stands up and says without preamble, "I'm pregnant."

Everyone- including Ryder, to Ben's amusement- is shocked and quickly begins to congratulate them. Ryder seems to be in a daze, even an hour and a half later when they leave and Ben claps him on the back, trying to successfully reanimate him, but it doesn't work.

"Did he not know?" Mal laughs as she watches Audrey basically push Ryder into the passenger's seat of the car. Ben's sure Audrey's horrific driving will bring Ryder back to reality, although considering his driving skills are just as good as Audrey's, it probably won't phase him in the slightest.

"Audrey's never done things conventionally."

"What's considered 'conventional' in Auradon?" she laughs.

"In this case, telling the father before you announce it to everyone. God, can you imagine how he would be if they _weren't_ already trying?"

"My guess is he would have fainted."

Ben watches her as she fiddles with a thread on her shirt nervously. She's not looking at him.

"Mal?" he asks tentatively.

"Chad and Freddie move in a week. Tegan's starting kindergarten in September, and Clara's going to preschool. Audrey and Ryder are having a kid. Lonnie, of all people, is thinking about marriage after barely six months of being in a relationship."

"I know; a lot of things are changing," he says, taking a step towards her and brushing away a lock of her vibrant purple hair. "But we've known about the move for months, and we've known that about Tegan since your birthday, and we decided months ago that Clara should start preschool, and Audrey and Ryder have been trying for close to a year, and Lonnie's really serious about Chris, and you know that. So what's really going on?"

"Are we going to change?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are we going to have a third kid?"

"Someday," he says, not quite knowing what else to say. The last time Mal had looked so small, he'd burst into their bedroom to find her holding a pregnancy test, with Evie, Jay, and Carlos fluttering around her like nervous hens. They've been talking in broad terms about a third kid basically since Clara was born. They know they're waiting, but neither is entirely sure of what they're waiting for.

"When is someday, Ben? Nine months from now? Five years from now?"

"Someday is whenever we're ready and we think Aria and Clara are, too. _That's_ when someday is." He pauses. "Why, are- are you ready?"

"No," she whispers, and tears start streaming down her face at a rather alarming rate. "The one time that we could actually try and plan this, to make sure everything is lined up when we want it to be, and I don't even think I'm ready. How messed up is that?" she asks, laughing bitterly.

"It's not messed up," Ben says immediately, wrapping her up in his arms. "Kids are hard. But Aria's growing more independent. So is Clara. I'm not ready, either. I want some more time with my girls before we add another."

"Really?"

"Mal, I will never pressure you on this subject. Even if you're never ready." He knows that pregnancy had been hard on Mal, with her being so small and the half-fairy blood causing hormones to run rampant. He doesn't care if they never have a third kid: Aria and Clara are two of the most important things in the world to him and he wouldn't care whether he had two of them or a hundred of them as long as he had them in his life.

"I don't tell you enough how much I love you."

"You tell me all the time," he laughs, stroking her hair as she rests her head against his shoulder.

"It's still not enough."

"Well, I won't argue with that."

* * *

 **(UPDATE 4/22/16) A/N: The next update will hopefully be April 29!**


	41. Moves

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **Warnings: Drinking to cope and non-graphic mention of miscarriage**

* * *

Mal watches on in amusement from the door of Chad and Freddie's apartment building as Ben steps back from the moving van Freddie had insisted on renting, wiping his sweaty brow with his forearm. Chad, beside him, slumps over.

"Oh, stop being so dramatic," Audrey chides from a lawn chair beside the moving van, an umbrella strapped to the back and a glass of lemonade in her hand.

"You could help, you know."

"Ryder told me not to move a muscle. I am pregnant, after all."

"You're still in your first trimester," Ben argues, "Mal still lifted things until late into her second both times."

"Ryder said not a muscle," Audrey retorts, lowering her sunglasses down over her eyes and resting her head back. "If you want to argue with anyone, argue with him."

"They still arguing?" Jane asks, stepping outside and standing next to Mal.

"Of course," Mal replies.

"One of the reasons I think Audrey and Ryder work so well is because she loves to be pampered and he has an overprotective streak a mile wide. I also think it's the more selfish reason behind them having kids."

"Well, they have to have an heir," Mal sighs, "Even if neither of them really want one, since Flynn, Anxelin, and Ruby can't inherit."

"Inheritance laws are stupid," Jane replies.

"I second that. Luckily, Aria _and_ Clara can both inherit from Ben without any hypothetical brothers taking over."

"'Hypothetical?'" Jane teases and Mal gives her a look. "I know, I know. 'We're waiting, we're waiting, we're waiting.' You've been saying that for almost a year."

"It's still true," Mal says. "How come Evie and Doug didn't get this much pressure to have a second kid before she got pregnant with Henry?"

"Because we didn't know if they planned on having more, especially after the miscarriage. You and Ben have wanted to basically have a tourney team since you found out about Aria."

"Nope, hypothetical baby would be the last one. Three will be _plenty_ ; sometimes I wonder how we're able to handle two."

"Where are they right now?"

"Best grandparents ever Adam and Belle took them, Tegan, and Henry to SuperAdventureLand. They will crash the second they get home, sleep through the night, and probably into the morning, too, and we get all of that gloriousness without having to walk around in the hellish heat chasing four children high on the cocaine that is Pixie Sticks and waiting in lines for hours at a time for rides that never get about ten miles an hour. Though, we do have to help our friends move, which, while still pretty bad, is not quite as bad as SuperAdventureLand can be." Jane laughs, though Mal knows that Jane knows that Mal isn't kidding. When Ben had first taken her to SuperAdventureLand back when they were first dating, it had been exactly that- a super adventure. Now that she's a mom, while the thrill hadn't died per se, going is a rather different experience now when she goes with her kids, though she won't deny how much she loves watching their faces light up when they meet any of the characters or when the Ferris wheel stops when they're at the very top and they can see almost all of Auradon.

"Hey, riff raff!" Freddie shouts from the doorway, "Come inside!" She disappears before anyone can ask her who, exactly, she considers 'riff raff,' but Chad seems to know exactly what she means and makes everyone head inside, including Audrey, who he even pulls out of the beach chair after rolling his eyes at her.

Freddie is standing on top of the couch inside her and Chad's apartment, the last thing that still needs to be moved. Chad and Ben slump against the wall, sweating buckets from moving all the furniture in the hot June sun, while Ryder immediately goes over to Audrey and wraps an arm around her, kissing her cheek.

"Thank you, dear friends for helping us do all the hard work. Well, helping _Chad_ do the hard work," she teases. "We invite you to come visit us in Charmington, but, as before, the 'Call first' rule will still apply." Mal rolls her eyes as Flynn and Lonnie wolf whistle and Freddie gives a small bow, making Chad bury his face in Doug's shoulder in shame.

"So. As you may have noticed, there's still one item left in the apartment: The couch. This is not a coincidence; there's no such thing." Mal chuckles, watching Freddie command the room. She can't help but think that her childhood frenemy is now one of her best friends, and is going to make a great queen.

"This couch was the first piece of furniture we got for this apartment. I bought it with actual money I had earned doing an actual job. We've all sat on it, and most of us have had sex on it, and as gross and disgusting Carlos may find that, it's true, so just accept it." Ben sends Mal a wolfish grin and she rolled her eyes at him. "It's only fitting that, not only should it be the last thing to leave the apartment, but that we do it together."

They all find some spot on the couch to hold, even Audrey, who looks close to tears as she does so. Jane lays a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder

"Ready?" Anxelin asked from the front. There's a chorus of agreement and then everyone lifts the couch up and manages to get it onto the truck. There are tears and hollers and hugs and promises to visit as soon as possible, and then Freddie and Chad drive away.

* * *

The news that Maurice had died, while expected after how ill he'd been, is still quite the blow to the castle. Belle shuts herself up in her room with only Adam and Lumière being allowed in and out. Ben throws himself into his work, and Mal does her best to stay out of his way until he's ready to talk. Maurice had accepted her almost immediately when they met, and had spent most of the wedding reception talking about inventions and chemistry with Carlos and Evie. He loved Aria and Clara so much it wasn't even funny.

So, when she gets some unexpected free time while Aria's at school and Clara's napping, she steals a bottle of scotch from Adam's stash and heads down to the one thing that's helped her in the past: The spell jar.

Ever since the creepy dream on her birthday the year before, she'd been trying to give her mother a wide berth. But whenever she needed somewhere to hide and get drunk and just forget everything that was happening, this is the best place.

The lizard seems to be asleep when she arrives, not that she particularly cares. She slides down against the wall and closes her eyes, taking a deep breath before opening the bottle and just staring at the thing across from her.

She has no idea how much time has passed when Ben's head peeks into the room and he sighs. Considering her head feels so light and that half of the bottle's already gone, she's guessing it hasn't been that long, two hours at most.

"Mal," he sighs again, coming in and taking the bottle away from her.

"Ben?"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Did my mom ever love me the way I love Aria and Clara?"

He stiffens, and if she hadn't been drunk, she wouldn't have risked even asking the question, much less expect an answer.

"I honestly don't know," he says, falling into a spot beside her.

"I remember when Aria first moved enough for me to notice, and I almost cried; you remember. And when we first heard her heartbeat, we were already so in love with her when she was just a jumble of cells. Did she _ever_ feel that way about me, _ever_? Was I just a parable to her, a lesson learned? Will I ever know? Can she really learn to love, because it's been I think thirteen years since that day and I don't think she's grown at all."

Neither Mal nor Ben are paying attention to the spell jar, but they should've have been, because they would have noticed that the lizard is protesting this statement.

"I honestly don't know," Ben repeats.

"I want a third kid," she announces. Ben looks at her in confusion.

"I know-"

"I mean, once Aria and Clara start preschool, I want us to start trying. I'm not going to get my birth control refilled so that, hopefully by then, I'll be back to normal in that department and we can start trying."

"You're sure? This isn't just the alcohol talking?"

"I'm sure, Ben."

The next day, he checks with her again, and she tells him that yes, she meant what she said. She doesn't think he's grinned that wide in two years.

* * *

 **A/N: I apologize if part of this chapter emotionally messed you up in anyway.**

 **UPDATE 5/13/16: _The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From The Tree_ 's next update will be soon, I promise, but will probably be a day or so after May 15. After that, it will be on an exam hiatus until June 3.**


	42. Lives

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **I will be altering my update schedule for this story. I've realized that I have some trouble updating more than one fanfiction in a week, especially when I try to update one of my more time-consuming stories. So, from now on, this story will be updated once every other week, on Fridays. That means the next update will be** **July 1** **instead of June 24. I apologize for this, but honestly I think it means the quality of this story has the chance to improve.**

 **This chapter time jumps from late June to very early September.**

* * *

Clara's starts preschool tomorrow, and Ben's not the slightest bit ashamed to admit that he's virtually unconsolable.

Mal has some ideas, though.

"Well then," he says as she snuggles deeper under the covers. He instinctively wraps an arm around her and pulls her closer.

"Yeah," she agrees, yawning. "Good distraction?"

"The best," he promises, kissing her head. "So, are we like, telling people? Like Audrey and Ryder did?"

"That we're trying?" He nods, and so she responds, "Maybe. I don't know. I don't want to get everyone's hopes up."

"Mal, we've already had two kids and we're not thirty yet. I don't think we have to worry about getting anybody's hopes up and not meeting expectations."

"I'm just nervous, Ben. Aria and Clara were both sort of accidents, especially Aria. What if now everything's different?"

"Mal-"

"But I do think that we need to tell at least your parents, because if it's a boy, what does that do to Aria's position? As far as I'm aware, nothing, but what if I'm wrong?"

He hadn't thought of that, but now that he's thinking about it, she has a point. He's fairly certain she's right, but now he has a nagging suspicion that she's wrong. Aria's too young for the inheritance laws to mean anything to her, but Ben thinks she is the kindest, fairest, most just, perfect princess to ever exist. Of course he's a tad biased, but it's true! She _deserves_ to be a queen someday- and Clara does, too, though her situation is different. While arranged marriages are a thing of the past, he hopes that Clara can find a way to rule someday and still be happy at the same time.

Thinking about his daughters' futures makes him feel old and he doesn't want to do it anymore.

His phone pings and he grabs it from the bedside table. There's an alert that Lonnie's commented on the photo he'd posted before leaving Clara's room of her curled up around her stuffed rabbit with the caption 'How is she starting preschool tomorrow?' He opens the alert to see Lonnie's comment: Maybe you should have another then ;)

He laughs, showing Mal the comment and saying, "Our adoring fans await."

"Tell Lonnie that she needs to get her own life," Mal groans, "And that we're doing another spa weekend this weekend so she can explain why I'm hearing rumors of her having _eloped_ last weekend _._ "

"Someone needs to get their own life," he teases.

Mal, understandably, pulls a pillow from underneath her head and hits him with it.

* * *

He wakes up the next morning to hands slapping his cheeks and he groans.

"Girls," he says without opening his eyes, "That is not going to get me out of this bed."

"It's me, idiot," Mal laughs, "I was wondering if you wanted to join me in the shower. Conserve water and all that good stuff."

"What time is it?" he asks suspiciously.

"Almost seven."

"Probably shouldn't risk it, then," he sighs, but he rolls so he's on top of her and gives her a deep kiss. "Good morning."

"Good morning," she chuckles. "Clara or Aria?"

"Clara," he says immediately. It's one of his last moments with his baby girl before she stops being so much of a baby. He's going to cherish it.

"Meet you in the dining room in twenty minutes, then. But you have to get off of me first." He grins and kisses her again before hopping up and heading towards Clara's bedroom.

Even though they'd moved Aria to a normal bed when she'd started preschool, Clara had refused almost the second they had suggested it to her. They'd let it go, considering Clara's two and Aria had been three, and besides, Clara's always been the less courageous of the two of them. It'll just take time.

"Clara, sweetie," he whispers, rubbing a hand over Clara's back. She mumbles incoherently, but she still rolls over and opens her eyes slowly.

"Daddy?" she asks.

"You gotta wake up; you start preschool today."

"Peeschool!" she says, shooting up and hitting Ben in the process. She doesn't seem the slightest bit remorseful as she literally jumps out of bed and runs straight to her bathroom, where she grabs the toothbrush Carlos gave her for her birthday- her favorite present, which everyone found surprising, especially Evie- and tries to reach for the toothpaste bottle that Mal had made the decision to move out of her reach after she managed to get half the tube in her hair the week before.

"Need some help, Fey?" he asks, stifling a laugh. She nods, her face screwed up in concentration, and lets him grab the tube and squeeze some onto her toothbrush.

Once her teeth are all brushed and she tries going to the bathroom in her training toilet, he helps her get dressed and makes a mental note to make sure that they get her more Pull-Ups. Of course, right as he puts her teddy bear into her backpack, she announces with a giggle that she's peed and he sighs to himself. It had taken Aria a little over a month to get used to potty training, and they'd only started Clara the week before, but he hoped that preschool would help that.

After a whole wardrobe change, he and Clara finally make their way downstairs, where his parents are already sitting. His mom fusses over Clara's hair a little before kissing her head and helping her into her seat. Mal and Aria enter the room then, and Aria immediately climbs into the seat beside Clara. Mal kisses his cheek as she sits down and he grins, placing his napkin in his lap.

He can tell today is going to be a good day.

* * *

Clara clings to his leg the second the limo door opens. Aria glances back and forth between her friends on the jungle gym and her little sister. Mal whispers something in their older daughter's ear and she nods determinedly before running towards the playground. Ben shoots Mal a curious look, but she waves him off, crouching down in front of their youngest daughter.

"Hi, baby," she whispers, tucking a flyaway piece of hair behind Clara's ear. "You're okay, sweetie."

"I don't go," Clara says stubbornly. "Aria don't go eiver."

"You both are going to go, even if Daddy and I don't want you to," Mal replies. She seems to be on the verge of tears and he can't deny the tears already threatening to spill out of his eyes.

"But why?"

"Because you and Aria are big girls now. And one of the things big girls do is go to preschool."

"You'll love it, C," Ben promises, kissing the top of her head. She still looks nervous, but that's when Aria comes bolting across the playground, holding the hand of two other girls.

"Clara! This is Taylor and Beth! They wanna play with us in the sandbox!"

"Okay," Clara answers, slowly unwrapping her arm from Ben's leg. "Bye, Daddy."

"Bye, baby girl."

"Bye, Mommy."

"Bye."

He watches Clara and Aria walk onto the playground hand in hand, their matching backpacks the only thing visible after a few minutes. Mal's hand finds his and squeezes, and he looks over at her.

"In two years, we might just be doing this all over again, you know."

"I know. I'm excited. Terrified, but excited."

"Then let's get to it."

"Ben!"

* * *

 **A/N: The next update will be (Updated June 30) July 15!**


	43. Memories

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **Guest who said something about update schedules :** **I'm afraid I don't know who you're talking about, though I do know that many fanfictions can go long stretches of time without getting updated, so I understand your pain! It's why I prefer having an updating schedule that I try to religiously stick to, or else this would be one of those, too. Also, please don't send another review saying who it is; I don't want anyone's feelings getting hurt!**

* * *

Mal sets the timer on her phone and leans back against the bathroom wall. She has no reason to get her hopes up, especially when there's been no sign of anything, but she already had to go the pharmacy on her way back from taking Aria and Clara to preschool to get more Pull-Ups, so she figured why not also grab a pregnancy test, just in case?

But having one made her anxious, so here she is, hiding in the bathroom instead of writing her speech that she's supposed to give in four days.

The timer goes off and she sighs. She should've waited.

"There's no reason to be nervous or disappointed," she whispers as she picks up the stick, face down. "Your period isn't still one hundred percent regular again. If it's negative, it's fine. If it's positive, you'll go down to the infirmary and confirm."

It's negative, and she throws it away before Ben can find it, a weird sadness forming in her gut that only intensifies when her period comes the next day.

* * *

Girls' night is rather entertaining. Since Audrey can't drink, and it's her night to chose, they all wind up at Litwak's. They order sketchy looking cheeseburgers and a copious amount of fries only because Audrey seems to be craving them, and she thinks that Litwak only lets the waiter give them more fries is because the majority of them are princesses and Mal's the queen.

When the arcade closes at ten, Audrey and Evie both leave, but everyone else heads to a tavern nearby that Mal's never heard of, but Anxelin and Jane swear is fantastic. Mal and Freddie stop in the square when they realize where they are.

"Do they…?" Freddie trails off, watching as Anxelin, Lonnie, and Jane go straight inside.

"Why is it still even open?" Mal asks. "He was banished with the rest of the villains. He was _dead_ , for crying out loud."

"You guys coming?" Jane says, peeking her head above the saloon doors. Freddie and Mal look at each other. "What's going on?"

"This was Gaston's tavern. Do you know that?" Mal says.

"I'd heard rumors. Is that a problem?"

"I don't think we should go in there," Freddie says, sharing a look with Mal. "Especially you."

"Oh, God, I didn't even think of that," Mal says, running a hand through her hair.

"Like because Gaston's history with your mother-in-law or because you're pregnant and told Freddie before any of us?" Jane asks, glancing at Mal.

"I'm not pregnant. I know, I was probably seen buying a pregnancy test a few days ago, but that was just to have in case it does happen. I'm the exact opposite of pregnant, I promise."

"Just come inside. Please," Jane says.

"I think I'm going to go home. Mal?" Freddie asks, glancing at her. "I can give you a ride."

"I…" She glances at Jane and Freddie's faces. Going into the tavern means facing a gazillion things she doesn't want to face right now.

Her cell phone goes off and she pulls it out, seeing a text from Belle with a picture of Adam, Ben, Aria, and Clara all passed out together on the couch in one of the common rooms. Her mother-in-law has added 'Stay out as late as you want!' with a bunch of smiling emojis.

Mal now has no choice.

"I think I'll go in."

Freddie still leaves, and Jane beckons Mal into the tavern. She takes a deep breath and crosses the threshold.

She sees Anxelin and Lonnie sitting side by side at a table for five, which Jane goes straight over to. Mal follows at a slower pace and watches everything in the tavern come to a grinding halt.

"Queen Adams," the bartender says, somewhat stupidly, looking at her in shock. She nods in acknowledgement and continues walking to the table.

"You're Maleficent's daughter," one of the patrons remarks, eyeing her warily.

"She's also your queen," Lonnie snaps, "So show some respect."

"What does the queen mother have to say about her presence here, though?" another adds.

"If you hate villains so much, why is this establishment, of all places, still open? You'd think the queen mother would want Gaston's footprint gone from the city," Mal retorts.

Everyone works themself up when Mal says Gaston's name. It's been thirteen years since she arrived, and almost seven since she became queen. They are apparently allowed to say the names of villains, to frequent taverns once owned by them, but she is not. She is from the Isle of the Lost. She is tainted by that. Her hair is purple and her eyes are green, she has the blood of fairies, of dragons, in her veins. Her mother is a lizard hidden in a spell jar of the

But she is still the queen, so she stands up a little straighter and ignores their open-mouthed stares as she walks over to her friends.

"Do you wanna go?" Anxelin asks, resting a hand on Mal's arm.

"I don't know," she says with a strained smile. Anxelin seems to decide her answer for her.

"Tapper's isn't too far. Should we go there instead?"

"No. I don't want to give any of them that satisfaction."

When she goes home that night, or, rather, the next morning, she is irritated. Adam is the only one still left on the couch, with a bright blue blanket on top of him. She peeks in on Aria and Clara, who are both passed out in their beds. When she heads to her room, she expects to find Ben in a similar state, but instead he is pacing up and down the floor at the foot of their bed, muttering to himself.

"Ben?" she asks, "Why are you still up? It's almost two."

"I apparently have to give a speech tomorrow."

"About?"

"The commemoration of the dwarf mines as a historical landmark."

"The mines are a historical landmark?" Mal asks, eyebrow raised.

"Apparently, yes, as of tomorrow. Look nice."

"Don't I always?" she asks, fiddling with the strap on one of her high heels.

"What's wrong?" he asks in the manner that only someone who's known her virtually her entire life can ask.

"Nothing."

"Mal."

"We wound up at Gaston's old tavern tonight and some people were assholes. It's nothing I couldn't handle."

"What do you mean his tavern still open?" Ben asks, looking horrified.

"Did you miss the part about assholes?"

"No, that's not what I meant. That place was shut down. Like, over thirty years ago, that is. But you're sure it was his tavern?"

"Yeah, Gaston talked about it all the time on the Isle. Freddie and I knew where we were the second we saw it."

"Who was there with you tonight?"

"Jane, Lonnie, and Anxelin. Ben, what's going on?"

"I don't know. But I intend to find out."

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you for your patience regarding updating! The next one will hopefully be July 29!**


	44. Investigations

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **Guest who made two requests :** **While I'm not taking requests as to what will happen, I do appreciate your enthusiasm towards the story! I can tell you that, while I enjoy fluff (And know that all of you must, too!), I try to put in little plots here and there- like the two started last chapter. However, ultimately, this story is about Mal and (To a lesser extent) Ben and the people they've become because of their environment and, more importantly, their family.**

* * *

Ben has trouble falling asleep after his and Mal's conversation. If it had been any other establishment to had been owned by a villain long ago, he would have been unsettled, yes, and as confused as he is now, but it's _Gaston's tavern._ The man who, when he learned that Belle didn't love him and didn't want to marry him, _had tried to kill his father._

He didn't know how long it had been open for. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. He'd been king since he was sixteen, close to half of his life, and having opened _his_ old tavern while Ben's parents were in charge was, in his mind, basically treason, so it had to have been opened since he'd taken over.

It irritates him. How had they gotten away with it in the first place?

His speech at the mine commencement is stilted and awkward, and Mal jokes about how some tabloid will connect the speech to her at the tavern last night and probably write some article about the end of an era. Auradon respects true love, but has no patience for break ups, especially not between the king and queen.

"Ben?" his mother says to him during the brunch that follows, "Are you alright?"

"I need to talk to you and Dad," he replies. He looks at Mal, Clara, and Aria across `the hall, speaking politely with Queen Elsa, who has always been like a surrogate mother to Mal and the other Isle kids. While their wedding guests hadn't sat by the traditional bride's side and groom's side, Elsa had still chosen to sit near the front of what was traditionally the bride's side. He smiles. Mal, he can tell, does not need to be linked with this anymore than her visit last night. Not only for her image, but for her sanity.

"What about?" Adam asks, looking at him worriedly.

"Not here," Ben replies. He sees his parents exchange worried looks out of corner of his eye and knows he's worried them, but before he can say anything reassuring (Is there anything reassuring to say?), Clara comes barreling towards him and his brain goes into autopilot, hoisting her up into his arms. Aria follows behind at a slightly slower pace, while Mal still stands next to Elsa, smiling after them. Ben smiles back at her before turning his attention to Clara.

"Daddy!" Clara says, looking at him with wide, "Keen Elsa say we go skating wiv her nex weekend!"

"Wow, that's very nice of her!" Ben says, wondering if this idea is Elsa's or Mal's. After all, she'd made it clear she wanted some alone time with him without having to rely on his parents or Doug and Evie for once. But then again, Elsa treats Aria and Clara as like the grandchildren she'd never had.

"I say fank you like Mommy and you teached me!" she adds, and he taps her nose with his forefinger, making her giggle. She and Aria run off again, and Mal goes to follow them, giving him a look that he knows means that she's not letting him off the hook for making her run around after the girls.

"You're doing well with them," Belle tells him.

"Thanks," he says, fairly dismissively, his daughters' absence reminding him of the conversation he needs to have with them.

"Are you sure you're okay?" she asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'll be right back," he says, standing up and walking towards Doug and Evie.

"Hey, Ben!" Evie says, waving him closer. "I heard about the tavern incident. If you need any investigative help, Carlos and I are always down."

"I might, actually," he laughs. "Thanks, Evie."

"Always."

* * *

Ben has never, ever seen his father so angry. He's never once believed some of the stories of Adam's- well, the Beast's- temper, but now he understands. He understands all the stories, understands the fear Maurice and Belle had felt when they first met him, understands what made everyone agree so easily when his father resurrected all those dead villains only to give them a fate worse than death on the Isle. When Adam is angry, this angry, he is downright _terrifying._

His mother, meanwhile, has paled significantly and is quietly whispering "Adam" over and over again, though he's not sure if it's a cry for a help or a desperate attempt to try and calm him down.

"When did this happen," Adam snarls, clutching the mantle of the fireplace so tightly his knuckles are turning white.

"I don't know."

"Is there any chance his boys are running it?" Belle asks, taking on what Ben assumes is supposed to be the voice of reason, "Because-"

"It doesn't matter who's running it. It's not supposed to be open! Any establishments formerly owned by villains were closed down, from Gaston's tavern to fucking Ursula's lair! This is Mal's fault," Adam interrupts.

"I'm sorry?" Ben scoffs.

"You made her Ambassador to the Isle before you two were married. They went through her to go back on an agreement set up when you first invited them back."

"Please tell me you are not insinuating that my wife, your daughter-in-law, the mother of your grandchildren, and, most importantly, _your queen_ , was in cahoots with the people who, like her, lived in _hell_ on that Isle, and decided to grant them amnesty to open the tavern their abusive father once owned and operated, then went behind my back and didn't tell me about it until last night, when she discovered it was open and was almost to scared of what people would say about her if she went in? Why would anyone do that?"

That shut Adam up, and it gave Ben more satisfaction than he cared to admit.

"I can guarantee it didn't open when we were in charge," Belle says tentatively, "But I only know that because my father was still living nearby and passed the building every day."

"So then it's likely opened in the time since Gramps died," Ben says, feeling some of the pieces fall into place. "By now, almost everyone who lives over there wouldn't know the history of the building. And if the owner doesn't boast about it, no one would know. Jane and Lonnie and Anxelin had no idea, even though they probably grew up hearing stories about Gaston and his tavern."

"But why would it be open in the first place?" Adam demands, slowly letting go of the mantle and walking closer to Belle.

"He made good beer," Belle says bitterly. "In fact, I might know who opened it."

"Who?" Ben asks.

"Lauren."

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you for your patience regarding updating! The next one will hopefully be August 12!**


	45. Meetings

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

* * *

Mal wants nothing more than to put all this stupid stuff behind her, but she knows that won't happen any time soon.

Ben's been holed up in the library for the past two hours, doing God knows what. With Aria and Clara at preschool, she's been left to her own devices, which means she's been spending her spare time sitting in front of the spell jar, though she's not entirely sure why she feels the need to go there.

"There you are," Ben says, appearing in the doorway. "We need to talk."

"About?" she says without looking at him.

"I know who Lauren is, and you might want to sit down for this." Now she looks at him, glaring, since she's already seated on the floor. He just grins and plops down next to her. "So. You know how the Bimbettes went with Gaston and LeFou to the Isle?"

"Yeah. One of them is Junior and Third's mother, but no one's sure which one."

"My guess is Laurette."

"Why?"

"Because, the year before Mom and Dad united all the kingdoms, Gaston and Laurette, well…" Mal's eyes widen. "Yeah. Apparently Laurette gave her up for adoption and she grew up in Sixth Street Orphanage, but when the Gastons showed up, she started asking questions. I mean, she was always probably looking for her parents, right, but I've seen a picture of her, and she definitely looks like the Gastons. So she did some digging and I guess came to the conclusion Gaston was her father, and so she came to the castle. It was back when we still went to Auradon Prep, and so I guess she spoke to my parents instead of me, since Mom and Dad seemed to know who she was and I didn't. So Mom thinks she opened the tavern back up again."

"But why? She never knew Gaston or Laurette, apparently."

"Maybe she wanted to be closer to him somehow? It's not a reason that makes sense to me, but-"

"Because it doesn't make sense, Ben. She would probably rather still be an orphan than know who her parents are," Mal interrupts. "I don't feel like she would've done it."

"She's the best guess we have," Ben sighs.

"Look. Is it possible that the tavern was simply opened because somebody wanted to open a tavern there?"

"Of course it's possible, but it doesn't seem overly likely. There's still people here who resent you, and you know it. You experienced it first hand at that place. Didn't you say someone even asked you how Mom would react to you being there?"

"Yeah," she says, leaning her head on his shoulder. "What do you want me to do?"

"It'd be great if you could talk to Lauren, see what she has to say. Maybe that'll help?"

"Maybe," she agrees, climbing to her feet. She looks at the spell jar behind her, then back at Ben, who has stood up and is watching her intently. "Am I ever going to be free of her? Of the Isle?"

"No," Ben tells her. "I don't think so."

She hasn't cried in a while, but she cries at that and lets Ben hold her as she does so.

* * *

She spends the next several days emailing with the mysterious Lauren, and they wind up planning to meet at Big Momma's. Mal sits at a table in the back, waiting, and when she sees someone who looks exactly like the Gastons come in, she knows that that's Lauren, and there's absolutely no doubt about it: She's Gaston's daughter.

"Your Majesty," she says, curtsying briefly before sliding into the booth.

"Oh, please, it's Mal," she replies on instinct. "I'm afraid I have some… concerns that I think you can help with."

"If this is about my parents-"

"Only partly," Mal tells her. "You really do look exactly like your brothers."

"That doesn't sound like a compliment."

"Well, I knew your brothers, and I have to admit, they were rather nice to look at. Before I came here, that is, and met Ben, who I find _much_ nicer to look at." Lauren cracks a smile, which Mal counts as a victory. "Lauren, when you first started suspecting who your parents were… how did you react?"

"I was ashamed. I still am, actually."

"I know the feeling. Believe me, I do. So, I take it then that you know nothing about the fact that your father's tavern was reopened?"

She puts her face in her hands.

"I know everything."

* * *

 **A/N: This is short, I know, but life caught up with me these past two weeks and this is the best I can do. I'm so sorry.**

 **On the other hand, thank you for your patience regarding updating! The next one will hopefully be August 26 (And will hopefully be a regular length)!**


	46. Plans

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **JJ:** **#1: I believe one of them has interacted with Lizard Maleficent without knowing it, but I'm not sure.**

 **#2: She's grown a couple centimeters since the end of** _ **Descendants**_ **, but that's it**

 **#3: You'll have to wait and see**

* * *

Mal had called him to Big Momma's. When he walks in, she's standing up in a booth near the back, and the second she sees him, waves him over. She doesn't protest when he kisses her cheek in front of a total stranger, so he immediately knows something's up.

"Your majesty," the woman he knows must be Lauren says, nodding at him.

"Ben, please," he says, sliding into the seat next to Mal. She grabs his hand under the table and he squeezes it. "What's this about?"

"Lauren knows," Mal says, looking at his face as if she's trying to gauge his reaction, "But she didn't have a part in it. Not really."

"What happened?" he asks, addressing Lauren and her alone.

"Back before your dad ever took over, there were rumors. I mean, I don't remember them; I was just a baby, but I've read about them. There were rumors that all the bad things that were happening were on purpose, that all the witches and pirates and bad animals and just- all the villains- were uniting to try and take over. That these people- Overtakers- were going to plunge Auradon- which, of course, was not yet Auradon, but I digress- into an age of darkness. But then the villains started dying or otherwise being defeated, and the heroes were getting happy endings all over the place, and then your dad created Auradon and banished all the villains to the Isle. That should've been the end, but it wasn't. I mean yeah, things were quiet for a while and everything, but that changed when-"

"We came," Mal interrupts. "When we came and when I became Ambassador and then queen."

"Yes. And a group of people who were… less welcoming than others started a group called the Overtakers. To try and say that they were corrupted. By you."

Mal looks close to tears and starts rapidly blinking her eyes. Ben squeezes her hand again, wishing he could hurt these people who hate their queen so much.

"And somehow, one of them found out I'm Gaston's daughter. So they opened Gaston's tavern and contacted me, telling me what they'd done and how they wanted to blame me. I destroyed the evidence and never contacted them back, and they, in return, never contacted me again."

"Wow," Ben sighs, trying and failing to come up with something to say.

"Yeah," Lauren agrees.

"Thank you," he says to Lauren, who nods. He stands up and places enough money on the table to cover the food that both she and Mal barely ate, and Mal follows him out of the booth.

"Thank you," Mal repeats. They start walking towards the door, Ben wrapping his arm around her. "Any ideas?"

"Not one."

* * *

"Alright, hear me out," Ben says, pacing up and down in front of their bed. He looks at Mal and she nods, setting her laptop down beside her and giving him her full attention. "It seems likely that the Overtakers or whoever were the ones at the tavern when you were there, right?"

"Yeah," Mal says.

"So, we send someone in. Evie, maybe, or Carlos. An Isle kid that, while high profile, wouldn't cause as big a stir as say Queen Mal, or tourney star Jay, or even Freddie Charming. They cozy up, get information… And then bam." He stops the pacing he doesn't remember starting to look at her, hoping she's come up with something.

"Bam what, exactly?" Mal asked.

"I was hoping you could fill it in."

"Well, I mean, if we got names… contact information… we could have them arrested. If not for treason, then definitely for trying to blackmail Lauren, right? And opening a bar without a permit?"

"We need to be careful with this, Ben," Mal says. "I mean, Evie and Carlos would both be able to do it without blowing their covers- well, Evie definitely, Carlos most likely- but if these people are as serious as they seem, we need to keep whoever goes in safe. And we need to get Lauren in on this, too, so it doesn't seem so completely random."

"Okay," Ben says, nodding. "Any ideas on how we do that?"

"No, not really," Mal replies with a small laugh. "Ugh, remember when everything was easier?" she complains, falling back against the pillows. Ben looks at her, grinning.

"When was that, exactly?" he says.

"Okay, probably never. But normally our life doesn't involve arresting people for treason."

"Yeah, that's true," he agreed, kissing her lips. "So how long do we have before we have to go get them?"

"Twenty minutes."

"I think that's long enough," Ben says, pushing her back down on the bed.

"Ben!"

* * *

"Of course I'll do it," Evie says, taking a sip of orange juice.

"Evie, maybe I should-" Carlos starts, but Evie glares at him. "Sorry."

"What were you gonna say, Carlos?" Ben asks.

"Evie is married with young kids. I'm not. If something goes wrong, I mean it hopefully won't, but if it does, losing me-"

"Carlos!" Mal shouts. "Don't you _ever_ say anything like that again, do you understand me?"

"It's the truth!"

"Carlos," Evie adds, grabbing his face and making him look at her, "Never again." She drops his face and turns back to him and Mal, a new resolve in her eyes. "I'll do it."

"You're sure?" Mal asks.

"Positive."

* * *

 **A/N: I'm sorry this is short; I'm kind of sick/writer's block is fun. The next update will hopefully be September 9!**


	47. Missions

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **So sorry for not updating yesterday; fell down a rabbit hole and before I knew it it was midnight and I only had about 500 words written! Whoops!**

 **Guest who asked about who hates the queen :** **Yeah, of course! Since Mal is from the Isle, it's basically a very small group of racist-like people who don't care how "reformed" she claims to be- she's still Maleficent's daughter, and Maleficent is considered by many to be one of Disney's fiercest villains. Think of them kind of like extreme Donald Trump supporters, if that helps. Ben marrying her caused a stir, since he's the king and she's from the Isle, and some people took this too far (Hence the Overtakers), but no one outwardly admits it. Hope that helps!**

 **Guest24:** **I did! I love the books (Though I still haven't finished one I got at least two years ago) and since I have sort of/kind of incorporated elements from Pixar movies, other Disney Channel material, and** _ **Once Upon A Time**_ **, I thought why not** _ **Kingdom Keepers**_ **?**

 **So here's a curveball… This chapter is in Evie's POV. She probably won't have a ton after this arc is over, but here's her first.**

* * *

Evie's alarm goes off at five AM and she groans loudly into her pillow, waking up Doug, just like every morning. He rolls onto his side and starts massaging her back, making her sigh in contentment.

"Do I really have to wake up?" she says, lifting her head up enough to see her husband.

"Yeah, you do," he laughs, kissing her temple. "First day back after Christmas is going to suck no matter what time you get up, so how about instead of complaining, we just get up?" He kisses her temple again and she pulls his head back down when he tries to pull away and turns her face so they're kissing on the lips. She sticks out her tongue and tries to get him to open his mouth enough for hers to go in, but he won't let her. When she finally breaks away for oxygen, she pouts at him in the way that's made him do her bidding since she was sixteen years old.

"Later?"

"You're going undercover tonight."

"Right," she says. Her face turns serious and she adds, "Doug, if something goes wrong in any of this-"

"Evie-"

"Doug," she interrupts. "I need you to know I love you. Like… a lot. Like, you might know me better than Jay and Mal do, and that's saying a lot. I literally cannot imagine how my life might have turned out if you hadn't entered it. I wouldn't have discovered my love of chemistry, or met someone that actually makes me feel special and challenged and cared for, or had those two little rascals in the other room. I can never repay you for any of that."

Doug kisses her, then pulls away, frowning.

"Isn't that just an edited version of your wedding vows?"

She gently pushes him away and heads towards Henry's bedroom.

* * *

"Hey, Mrs. D?" Natalia asks, knocking on the door to her office, "Is now a good time to talk about my exam?"

Evie closes her laptop, obscuring the email she's currently drafting that lies about her having a personal emergency and needing to take time off that she plans to have Doug send if something happens. He's not going to like it, but she just wants to be prepared- is that too much to ask?

"Of course, Nat," she says, pulling out the empty chair beside her. "Take a seat." She leans over to the cabinet with all the exams and rifles through it until she find's Natalia's, pulling it out.

As they go over the girl's exam, Evie's reminded yet again why she loves chemistry, why she loves her job. Yet another reason she cannot mess this up.

* * *

"You look so pretty, Mommy!" Tegan says as Evie finishes applying her make up. She's wearing a deep red cocktail dress that hugs all the right places- of course it does, she reasons, since she made it herself- with a matching red lipstick. Her hair's been done up in an updo she's especially proud of, and she has her gold stilettos sitting beside Tegan on the bed.

"Thank you, sweetheart," she says, turning around and picking the girl up in her arms. "You're heavy! I'm gonna have to stop carrying you around soon!" Tegan giggles and buries her face in her neck. Evie plops down on the couch and Tegan rolls off of her so they're both laying down on the bed on their sides, facing each other. She tucks a piece of Tegan's hair behind her ear with a smile. Neither of her children had inherited her blue hair, thank God, so they had walnut-y brown colored hair, though Tegan had sadly got her curls. Well, _she_ thinks it's sad. Doug says he loves it and hopes Henry's might still curl. Tegan's beautiful, more beautiful than she was at her age, she thinks. She hopes everything doesn't screw up and she can see both Tegan and Henry grow up into the amazing people she knows they're going to be.

"Hey, Eve? Lauren's here!" Doug calls and Evie sits up, reaching over Tegan for her shoes.

"Just a second!" she calls as she slips them on. She turns to Tegan. "Be good for Daddy, okay? And keep an eye on Henry?" Tegan nods, standing up and kissing Evie on the cheek. She gives her a hug and wishes it could be longer, but Lauren's waiting for her. "I love you, baby girl."

"I'm not a baby; I'm five and a half!" she tells her indignantly, "I'm in _kindergarten_."

"Right," Evie says, helping her down off the bed. The two walk out of her bedroom and get to the living room, where Tegan runs over to the couch to watch a movie with Henry. Evie follows her and kisses Henry on the head, whispering an 'I love you' to him before walking to the door. Lauren is dressed very similar to her, but her dress is a rather electric shade of blue.

"Hello," Lauren greets, and Evie simply nods at her.

"Why do you have to wear such tall heels?" Doug whines, having to stand on his tiptoes to be able to reach he and give her a kiss on the cheek. She feels as if they'd had their goodbye already, so she's okay with it, but almost wishes they could do more.

"You ready?" Lauren asks her. Evie nods, feeling less confident than she hopes she feels. "Let's go then."

* * *

The sleazy club that she and Lauren are meeting the Overtakers are at makes her want to puke. The air is hazy with smoke that's too real to simply be a smoke machine and smells of alcohol and vomit. She hasn't been in a club like this since before her kids were born. Age wise, she's fine- in fact, _Lauren_ 's the one who may stand out more that way than she does- but her figure, like Mal's, probably does not scream twenty-eight years old the way Lonnie's and Jane's do. In a way, she kind of hope that helps an Overtaker spot them.

They go to the VIP section, as instructed, and Lauren gets them in. The second they enter, someone leers at her and she waves at them with her left hand, making sure her rings are completely visible. _That_ makes that someone come up to her.

"Who're you?"

"Evie Dwarfson. I've come to join the Overtakers."

* * *

 **A/N: UPDATED 9/24/16: Please see my profile for more information. You can access it by clicking on my username next to the story's picture at the top of the page.**


	48. Laughter

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 ** _PLEASE, PLEASE READ_ :** **So, this was last updated September 10. So sorry about that. I have had a super busy year. I have been involved in three plays, I tutored this whole semester, I started taking voice lessons, and I'm just a couple weeks away from ending what has been a pretty a rough year academically and in terms of mental health. So, when I did have free time and wasn't in a major block, I focused a lot more on writing original stuff, especially since one of my friends was providing feedback. When I did write fanfic, this doc was always one of the first I opened, but I just couldn't get things out the way I wanted to and did something else, which is why a lot of short drabbles and oneshots have been published over any of my actual stories these past few months.**

 **To everyone who has been waiting ages for this update** **: I'm sorry. Thank you for your patience, and I hope you like what I have for you.**

 **To everyone who has sent me uplifting messages about updating** **: Thank you for the encouragement. The main reason I forced myself to get this done was because I got two reviews in one day from NaomiRadcliffe and Cocoj23 that really got me thinking about where to go from here.**

 **Eviefangirl:** **In response to your review about Clara and sand, when I was really really little I hated touching sand, so I gave Clara the same issue. Nothing special!**

 **DerpQueen** **: Nope, just a fluke with the monitor. Sorry for any confusion!**

 **I know this chapter will likely not live up to the hype, but enjoy regardless.**

* * *

"Why hasn't she said anything? Huh? It's almost midnight and she hasn't said a _word_ ," Mal huffs as she exits the bathroom wrapped in only her towel, her phone in her hand. He raises an eyebrow at her as she sets her phone down on the bed and then quickly gets dressed, not daring to say a word. "Midnight! Lauren picked her up at eight, so they were at the club by eight-thirty. That's almost three and a half hours, Ben. Should we call her? Maybe we should have sent in Carlos; he's so much better at thinking on his feet-"

"Mal?"

"What?"

"Breathe."

"I'm sorry," she sighs, plugging the phone in and then collapsing into the bed, looking at him with a small smile.

"I know you're worried. Do you think I'm not?"

"I know; I know. But it's been almost three and a half hours. And we both know she was worried about going in, even if she refused to admit it. I just-"

"Breathe," he repeats, and she lets out a long sigh, running a hand through her still-wet hair and getting water all over the place. "Would me shaking like a dog to get that water off make you feel better?"

"A little bit," she said, grinning, and he did it just to hear her laugh.

* * *

When they woke up the next morning, she had a text from Evie saying, "I'm fine; sorry if I scared you." Mal looks like she's about to start crying out of relief, and Ben doesn't even feel the need to mention the six texts he'd sent to her and even Doug asking them to contact Mal before she lost her mind. She promises to come by that afternoon.

When she does, Mal hugs her tightly. Ben does, too, and he knows Mal and Evie can both tell, but neither says a thing. They all sit down together, and Mal pulls out a notebook.

"What happened?" she asks, clicking the pen loudly.

"Well, first off, I stand out like a sore thumb in there. And not just because of my hair. They're all pale skinned, and the girls are six feet tall with eight inch heels, and none of them look like they've ever had kids-"

"E?" Mal interrupts, stifling a laugh, and Evie nods.

"Right. Well last night was more of an interview. They didn't believe that I wanted to join, which is understandable. I did choose good all those years ago, I'm married to the son of a heroic sidekick and have two kids with him, I teach at Auradon Prep, and I'm best friends with the queen," Evie says, twisting the hem of her skirt around her finger. "So I lied my ass off."

"I should hope so," Ben says and Evie snorts.

"I told them that I was young and stupid when I chose good. I said that I married Doug because he forced me to and that I didn't love him. I said my children were only born for appearances. I said that I teach to corrupt, and I remain friends with you in hopes of turning you back, too," Evie says, tears welling in her eyes. "I knew I would have to lie to get them to trust me. I just didn't expect it to hurt as much. Or for the lies to come as easily as they did. Lauren and I never talked about it; I just did it."

"Evie, if you need to back out-" Mal begins but Evie shakes her head emphatically. "What? Why? I thought you just said-"

"If I back out now, I don't know what I would say. They believed every word I said. I don't know why, but they did. They let me in, Mal. I'm in," she says, then she reaches into her bag and pulls out something he hasn't seen in ages: her magic mirror. "It records things. I recorded our entire conversation. He never gave me his name, so I can't trace him, but with this recording, Carlos can. That's one name, one face. And I got the sense the whole thing is a hierarchy. I've dealt with the little guy; now I go a rung up. I collect more names, more faces… And we can figure out just what they're doing, and arrest them, because whatever it is, it's shady," she continues.

Ben looks at Mal. The pen tip is hovering just above the paper, and she sits perfectly still. He studies her face, and all he sees is emptiness.

"Mal?" he says, placing his hand on her knee, and she comes back to life.

"Yeah. Yeah, this could work." She lunges forward and pulls Evie into a tight hug. "You be careful, okay? Tegan and Henry need their mom."

"I'll be careful, M. I promise."

* * *

The next week, Evie goes back in. Mal goes to girls' night to give her something to do other than worry. Ben is left with the girls, who spend most of the night working on arts and crafts and giggling. He hopes they're working on birthday presents for him, because he loves the odd collection of presents he and Mal have amassed from them, but at the same time, with the amount of glue they're using, he's not looking forward to cleaning all of it up.

"Daddy?" Aria asks.

"Yes, Beastie?"

"I want a puppy. Like Uncle Carlos."

"Puppy!" Clara yells, sitting up so straight so quickly he expects to hear something pop. Ben's mouth opens and closes.

"I'll talk to Mommy, okay?" The girls are sated by that and return to their glue and giggling. Ben is at a loss. It's odd for him to have his daughters so blissfully unaware for all the stress and anxiety he and Mal have been feeling the past two months. His daughters are happy and healthy and thriving.

It makes him feel good to know that he and Mal, for all that, are at least doing something right.

"Can I help you guys?" he asks, sitting down on the floor in between them.

"It's secwet. Sssh," Clara says, holding her finger to her lips. Ben nods sagely.

"Daddy's honor," he says.

"It's for Mommy, for Cwistmas," she says, showing him what looks like a picture frame made out of the macaroni Aria had sweetly asked Chip for.

"Oh? It's not for, I don't know… Daddy's birthday next weekend?" he says, grinning. Clara and Aria share giggles that scare him for their teenage years and Clara shakes her head. "What do you have for Daddy's birthday?"

"We not telling!" Clara says, turning her face away from him. He laughs.

"Oh really?" Aria and Clara nod emphatically. "Well, then, I guess I'll just have to… Tickle it out of you!" he says, picking one of them up in each arm and tossing them gently onto Aria's bed before tickling both of them. They laugh loudly and squirm all around. He feels a hand on his shoulder and he turns to see Mal standing next to him, smiling. "What are you doing back?"

"Audrey went home after dinner; she's not feeling great, and Lonnie is going to meet Chris's parents and has to wake up early, so she ditched, too. Freddie, Jane, and I decided to just call it. What do we have going on here?" she says, looking down at Aria and Clara, who are now both sitting up. Aria is out of breath and grinning, with the occasional hiccup, and Clara is reaching towards Mal, who lifts her onto her hip.

"They won't tell me about my birthday present."

"Good! Then they listened when I said they were sworn to secrecy," Mal says, kissing the bed of sandy hair on Clara's head. "But tickles do seem like a good way to spend the evening."

"Mommy!" Aria gasps, as if betrayed, and Mal begins to tickle Clara, who squirms. Ben pulls Aria towards him and does the same.

He can't imagine a time the halls of the castle where ever filled with this much laughter.

* * *

 **A/N: I'm not going to make any updating promises; sorry! Hopefully sometime soon!**

 **Let me know in the reviews what you think or if you have any questions!**


	49. Fears

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **Happy Descendants premiere day! I really wanted to get this posted before the movie aired on Disney in the US, but my day was busier than I expected, so that did not happen. From now on, this story will probably reference characters/events from the movie. However, this is set far enough in the future that the story shouldn't be overly affected… I hope.**

 **This chapter has a five month time skip.**

* * *

"The trial of _Overtakers v. The Crown_ concluded today, with the members of the Overtakers being found guilty of treason and sentenced to-"

Mal turns the television off as Clara runs into the room.

"Hide me Mommy!" she says with a squeal. Mal lifts her up and pulls her onto the bed and under the covers. Aria appears in the doorway, looking around furiously before resting her eyes on the lump Clara's made.

"A ha!" she shouts, rushing to the bed and pulling back the cover. Clara gasps and pulls herself up to a sitting position.

"How you know?" she says in awe. Mal bites back a laugh.

"I'm almost five; I'm very smart," Aria says.

"Um, not for two more weeks, missy," Mal replies, tickling her.

"Den I be free!" Clara says, holding up two fingers. This time, Mal does laugh, gently prying up a third finger. "Free!" Clara says, waving her hand.

"That's right, you do turn three next month," Mal agrees. Her little girls are getting so _old_. She doesn't like it one bit, and knows Ben isn't a fan, either. "What do you want to do for your party? We'll have to send invitations out soon."

"Dwess up!" Clara yells, throwing her hands up happily. "Aunt Evie can make me a dwess and we can have tea and cookies!" she adds in a rush.

"That sounds like a good idea," Mal tells her. "I'll talk with Daddy and Aunt Evie."

"Yay!" Clara yells again. Mal's phone begins to ring and she leans over to grab it. Audrey's name lights up the screen and she answers, expecting some sort of question regarding little Aiden Fitzherbert, her and Ryder's three month old son. Audrey had complained for the five days after her due date that Aiden refused to be born, and then had been in labor for twenty-two and a half hours before Aiden _finally_ made his appearance.

"Hey," she says into the phone, "Everything alright?"

"Yeah. Just wanted to check in on you, after the trial."

Things with the Overtakers had progressed quickly, thanks to Carlos. Evie and Lauren had risen through the ranks of the Overtakers quickly, and Carlos had made quick work of figuring out who each and every person was. They had planned a raid of Gaston's tavern during a meeting the Overtakers had there in the dead of night, and everyone, save Evie and Lauren, were arrested. Some of the lower level members plead guilty prior to the trial, but others had refused to talk, even as evidence piled up against them. Really, she had been expecting the outcome of the trial, but it's still a relief to hear that the jury, unanimously, found these people guilty of treason. If they hadn't, her position, and Aria and Clara's, would have been in jeopardy, and she's the queen. If the Overtakers were found innocent, because the VKs- a term she hadn't used since high school- had corrupted them, what would have happened to all of them? Freddie, another royal of Auradon by marriage, would she be safe? Kit and Ella's belovedness in Charmington made her hope so, and besides, she didn't have children yet, so she would not be as big of a threat as the married with children queen of Auradon. Evie likely would have been fired, or, more accurately, forced out of Auradon Prep and never get another teaching job. Would they try to take Tegan and Henry away? Would they have tried to take Aria and Clara away? And what about Jay? Would he have been kicked off his tourney team? Would Carlos have been fired from his office?

"I'm good, actually. Really good, now that it's all over," she answers, running a hand through her hair and giving it a little shake. "Thank you, though."

"No problem. If your ever wanna talk about, I'm there for you. You know that, right?"

"I do," she replies and laughs, shaking her head even though Audrey can't see it. "Did you ever think we would get here?"

"God no," Audrey laughs. "I'm glad we did though. I don't know who I would turn to for baby tips." Mal laughs again.

"Without us, would you even have Ryder?"

"Who knows?" Audrey says. "I've definitely thought it before, though." In the background, Aiden starts to cry and Audrey sighs. "Alright, that's the prince. He has such an attitude, I swear. Bye, Mal."

"Bye, Audrey," she says contentedly. She hangs up and turns her attention back to her girls. "Thank you for being quiet while Mommy was on the phone. It was very big girl of you," she says with a smile. Aria puffs out her chest.

"Well if it isn't my three favorite people in the world," Ben's voice drawls. Aria and Clara shriek in excitement and rush over to him, letting him scoop them up into his arms.

"I'm sure your parents would love to hear that. And Chad," she teases as he walks into the room, kissing her as he throws the girls down on the bed, making them laugh.

"Yeah, well, considering Chad has a wife now, I'm sure he understands." Mal hums in agreement.

"How's the trial aftermath?"

"Chaotic. I'm sorry I can't do more to keep you away from it."

"If I shy away from it too much, people will get suspicious, though I appreciate you trying," she says, taking his hand in hers and running her thumb across it. "Besides. I'm tough, remember? I can do this."

"You always could," he says and she blushes, remembering her blonde hair days and the spell book that's been locked in the museum ever since the cotillion. She hates thinking of that time in her life, when she was so unsure of everything, when Uma had spelled Ben. But, at the same time, it's a night she can never forget: The first night she ever told Ben she loved him.

It was also the night she became a dragon, but that's much less important.

"Daddy guess what!" Clara says, "I free soon!"

"That's right!" Ben says, tickling her stomach. "What do you want to do for your party?"

"Dwess up and tea! Aunt Evie can make me a pwetty dwess!"

"That sounds like a good idea," he says, "Maybe Dizzy can do your hair." Clara puts her hands on her cheeks, her mouth in a perfect 'oh.' Aria laughs, resting her head on her sister's shoulder. "You two are getting so big. I don't like it." Aria grins proudly.

"Yeah, they are," Mal says, running her hand through Clara's hair. "Still want another one?"

"Very much so. Why, got something to share?"

"Not yet," she says quietly. "But I'll let you know." Someone knocks on the door and Mal glances over, not overly surprised to see Chip in the doorway.

"Lunch is in the dining room," he says with a smile.

"Thank you Chip!" Ben choruses, scooping Clara and Aria back up. He stands up and Mal follows suit, pulling Aria from his arms. "Let's go eat."

They walk side by side to the dining room, a girl in each arm, and Mal is so happy that she faced her fears, because she wouldn't be here without it.

* * *

 **A/N: I'm not going to make any updating promises; sorry! Hopefully sometime soon!**


	50. Anniversaries

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine.**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **Hi. It's been a while. Life is insane up in senior in high school land. So sorry for the wait.**

 **But guys,** _ **50 chapters!**_ **When I wrote the first chapter of this, I thought it would be a simple one-shot. Now, it's 50 chapters, has over 900 reviews, over 500 favorites, over 700 follows, and is by far my most popular story. It is** _ **absolutely insane!**_ **Thank you all so much for sticking around as long as you have!**

 **Guest who asked about the "Junior Year From Hell"** **: In one of the early-ish chapters, I think it's "Eyes" but it's whichever one Audrey and Ryder got married in, I made up this idea called "The Junior Year From Hell," which would have been the first full school year after where I put** _ **Descendants**_ **in my own personal timeline (Which would be about second semester of sophomore year). Basically, more Isle kids came over and wound up kidnapping Ryder and a couple other people. Audrey helped Mal rescue them, and then Jane and Mal used their magic to put up a much stronger barrier around the Isle. This year also includes my one-shot "Candy Canes and Mistletoe" and I think** _ **Descendants 2**_ **can fit in it as well, since it's six months post the original (Which would be like September in my timeline) and then Ben at the end of that movie makes it clear he plans on bringing more people over from the Isle (Like Dizzy). Hope that helps!**

 **And finally, this chapter has a timeskip of four months. Enjoy!**

* * *

Even though it's October, it's hot enough that it may as well be early June, so while Mal's at girls' night, well, girls' brunch, he, Aria, and Clara head outside. The castle has traditional gardens, like many others, but one thing Belle had insisted on when he was born was a jungle gym and a pool. Both had been abandoned for years, and they had considered revamping them when Mal had first found out she was pregnant. Years later, they'd finally decided (With some help from Aria and Clara) that it was time to get them back in working condition. The girls love it, and he does, too. Especially when everything was going on with the Overtakers, going to the park stressed both of them out, so it was so much easier to just go out back with the girls.

Today, he's sitting at the bottom of the slide, watching as the two play tag. Clara's almost as fast, if not faster than, Aria, but she's doing a pretty good job of keeping up. He and Mal had talked long and hard about holding Aria back from kindergarten until she's six, and he's kind of glad that's the decision they made. It means more time for the two of them to play together.

God, he can't wait to have another one. He and Mal haven't had any luck yet, but he hopes they will soon. He's not worried about it, though. He's been open to the idea of adopting, or maybe just even stopping. They have two amazing little girls. Aria, at age five, is loving and caring, if stubborn. She's inquisitive and creative. She looks a lot like him, right down to her hair. Clara, two years younger, loves to make noise, whether it's talking or singing or laughing. She's much more outgoing than her sister, and gets frustrated easily, which is irritating since she doesn't like asking for help. She may have his hair, but everything else is all Mal.

He wonders what another child of theirs would look like. He really wants one with Mal's hair. He would love another girl, though maybe it's time for a boy. He's joked before about how he wouldn't give into a boy as much as he gives into his girls, but he knows he would.

"Hey, you," Mal calls, and he glances up to see her making her way across the backyard. She's in black skinny jeans and a purple peplum top with her black booties and a black leather jacket- her version of dressing up these days, with two hyperactive children and a country to run, no longer worried about heels and fluffy dresses like she was in high school. The green stone of her engagement ring catches the light, making it shine even brighter, and he smiles.

"I love you, you know that?"

"What? Eight years of marriage and two children never would have made me guess that!" she says, smiling, and she kisses him sweetly, smiling at him when she pulls away. "I love you, too."

* * *

Their wedding anniversary is this week, and they take the day off (As much as a king and queen can take the day off, of course). They had decided to keep it pretty casual, but they have an anniversary dinner celebration with their friends that night. It was Evie's idea, unsurprisingly, but everyone had jumped on board. Ben and Mal had insisted no gifts, even though it was clear that Evie, Anxelin, and Jay had found this sacreligious for an anniversary celebration, even if it was a boring year (Eight, to be precise). But they'd gotten each other gag gifts, and his parents had helped Aria and Clara put together a picture collage, which was adorable and had been hung above their bed as soon as it was opened and admired.

Now, they're at the Enchanted Lake, having a picnic all to themselves, with strawberries, peanut butter and jelly, and brownies. They were long past the phase were they wanted things big and elaborate, and had been for some time. It's much less pressure, they quickly discovered.

"We should swim," Mal says, already reaching for her t-shirt and pulling it up over her head. She has on her royal crest bikini, a gag gift he'd gotten her for a Christmas back in college once she admitted to actually liking swimming. He grins at her, having had the same idea long ago, and strips to his electric green swim shorts, meant to replace his own royal crest ones that had to be sadly retired. Standing up, they race across the pavilion and around to the giant rocks. He takes her hand and they exchange a grin, cannonballing into the water as Mal shouts in delight.

He's only underwater for a split second before he comes up, shaking his head like a wet dog. To complete the memory, he howls, and Mal, coming up now herself, laughs hysterically, throwing her head back. Their hands are still intertwined, and he smiles at her.

"I know an eight year wedding anniversary isn't a huge deal," Ben says, pulling her closer to him in the water. "And fourteen years together also isn't that big of a deal, but I think they're both pretty amazing."

"Yeah, they are," she promises, pressing her forehead against his. "Has it really been fourteen years?"

"Yep," he whispers, pecking her lips quickly. "Fourteen years of loving you so, so much."

"I love you, too," she replies, wrapping her legs around his waist. "I'm so glad you taught me what love feels like." He laughs, glancing over at the pavilion where they had first had this conversation.

"Me, too. Now," he says, his voice dropping to a whisper, "Can we do what I've always wanted to in that pavilion?"

"I thought you'd never ask," she replies with a laugh, kissing him. He stands up and walks them towards the pavilion, laying her down with a smile.

* * *

"Alright, I have something I want to say," Lonnie says, standing up and holding out her wine glass. "For the past… I don't know, at least a decade, you two have been inspiring all of us. I have never met a more selfless and devoted couple in my entire life. You're always irritatingly adorable, and funny, and there for each other, and if the son of Beauty and the Beast and daughter of Maleficent can not only make such adorable babies but also just be so happy, then the rest of us have it easy," she continues, taking Chris's hand, her engagement ring glistening in the chandelier lights. "So, happy freaking anniversary you crazy king and queen!"

The rest of their friends cheer, and everyone clinks their glasses together, even the kids. Aria helps Henry reach his mom's, and Audrey use's Aiden's bottle rather than her own.

"That's not true, but we'll take the compliment, right, babe?" Mal says, grinning at him, her eyes bright and happy.

"Ssh, we have an image to uphold," he teases, leaning in to kiss her cheek.

Their friends tell embarrassing stories about them, and the ones Chad tries to tell especially need to be repeatedly censored for all the young ears at the table. He and Mal smile and laugh, his arm casually around her shoulders most of the night.

He's spent almost half of his life with this girl, he realizes with a start, and that someday, pretty soon actually, he will have spent more years with her than without her.

 _Good_ , he decides, _I couldn't imagine anything better._

* * *

 **A/N: I'm not going to make any updating promises; sorry! Hopefully sometime soon, because I've got some exciting things planned! Let me know what you think; reviews honestly are great motivators!**


	51. Downs

**DISCLAIMER: Most definitely not mine. (And for this chapter, that means** _ **Anastasia,**_ **too.)**

 **A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, favorites, and follows! They all make me so happy; you have no idea!**

 **What? An update in less than two weeks after huge gaps between updates? This is what winter break is good for, folks.**

* * *

As it does seemingly almost every fall, the flu sweeps through Sunnyside Daycare Center. Aria and Clara are both scheduled to get their flu shot that Friday, and Ben had gotten his the week before, because he was going to talk with the king of Andalasia and didn't want to get sick. She, after almost fifteen years with the man, knows this to be code for 'I hate shots more than anything else in the world and don't want my daughters to see me cry when the doctor pricks me.'

Which is sweet, of course, but the fact that he gets it so far in advance and then lies to his daughters about how brave _he_ is when _he_ gets shots, well.

But of course, because it's just her luck, that Thursday, in the middle of a Council meeting, there's a knock on the door. Ben frowns, but stands as Chip comes in. He has a cell phone in his hand- Mal's.

And she's the primary contact for Sunnyside.

Aria's fine, but Clara's running a fever. She and Ben share a groan. Clara had woken up with the sniffles that morning, but the two of them had brushed it off; everyone's noses got runny when it got cold. Apparently, that had been a gross miscalculation.

Belle volunteers to pick up Clara for them, and they manage to finish the meeting with several new initiative ideas and plans. Ben manages to get away and take care of her for an hour or two, but then he has leave and she takes over.

Clara, at her request, has been bundled up in all of the covers from her and Ben's bed, plus the blanket Jane knitted her last Christmas and the dog snuggie Carlos gave her for her birthday. Mal stands in the doorway and wants to laugh at how pitiful her daughter looks. Her nose is dripping like crazy and her cheeks are flushed, with eyes barely staying open, yet she still manages to pout.

"Hi, Fey," she says, and she walks forward and lays down beside her in the bed. "Are you cold, baby?"

"Yes," Clara says, practically groaning. She kicks at her blanket cocoon and Mal bites back a laugh, wrapping an arm around her daughter's body. "I firsty."

"Daddy says Chip got you some juice boxes; do you want one of those?" Clara nods and Mal stands up and grabs one off their dresser, and the box of tissues that's next to it. Clara's still having some trouble with how, exactly, to blow her nose, so maybe the flu can become a teaching moment. She gets back in the bed and pulls the flaps on either side of the juice box, then sticks the straw in and holds it in front of Clara, who reaches for it.

"Hold on. Sit up, please," she says. Clara shimmies up slightly, but Mal knows she's not going to move much farther and gives her the juice box by the wings. Clara takes a long sip that drains at least half the box, and Mal crosses her fingers that she's actually able to keep it down.

"Mommy?" Clara asks, wiping at her nose.

"Yes?" Mal says, passing her a tissue. Clara blows into it more with her mouth than her nose, then wipes the remaining snot and sets the tissue down.

"Can we watch Anastasia?"

"That depends. Do you want to try and get some sleep? It is almost naptime," she says. Clara's eyes are barely open, and even if they do start the movie, she knows that little girl's going to be out before the end of 'Journey To The Past' but plans on fighting it the whole way. She would much rather let Clara call it now.

Clara yawns, and curls into her side, making the decision for her. Mal smiles and begins to stroke her hair and sing softly, "Far away, long ago…"

An hour later, and Clara's been out for a good fifty-nine minutes. Mal's been scrolling through Facebook, trying to catch up with the world. Ryder posts what feels like every five seconds about Aiden, which is adorable but… Come on. Lonnie's posts always have something to do with Chris, but, they're getting married, so it makes sense. Despite having gone super officially public, Jay and Carlos rarely mention their relationship online, which she almost envies. Her relationship with Ben had always been examined because it had become official on live television during his coronation. Jay and Carlos had hidden their relationship for a long time, and she knows Jay rarely talks about it in interviews. It would be nice, she thinks, to have had that time away from the spotlight to develop her relationship with her husband, even if the way it's turned out is amazing.

What's more interesting about her Facebook wall these days, though, is the number of people getting engaged, married, pregnant. Anxelin, Flynn, and Jane are all still single, but most of her other friends, no matter how close they are to her, are in some sort of big life event. Even Dizzy's engaged now, as crazy as it is considering she's twenty-four. (Of course, Mal was pregnant at twenty-four, so maybe it's not _that_ crazy.) It's not that she feels left out, per se; she's married to an amazing man and has two amazing children, so if anything, she's ahead of the curve, but it's just a heavy dose of ironic. She had been against marriage and children, even romantic relationships, but at least she wasn't the first to give in the way Evie was.

She's interrupted from these thoughts by her phone buzzing in her hands. She goes into her messages to find it's from Ben:

 _ **she out?**_

 _How'd you know?_

 _ **genius. also she was barely awake when i was there so.**_

 _Clever._

 _ **what do you wanna do with aria?**_

 _Separate them. Aria's getting that flu shot tomorrow come hell or high water._

 _ **hate to say it but claras so much worse when she's sick. why couldn't it be aria?**_

 _Don't think like that; we cannot have both of them sick. Between Clara's constant angry neediness and Aria's tired clingyness, we'd be dead._

 _ **are we bad parents for having this conversation?**_

 _No?_

 _ **alright, off to pick up aria. chip'll bring you guys lumiere's famous chicken soup for dinner.**_

 _Perfect. How do you wanna split up girls tonight?_

 _ **clara's going to get mad at you and force us to switch soon enough and you know it. let's just focus on keeping them happy and away from each other.**_

 _Sounds like a plan. I knew I kept you around for a reason._

 _ha. Love you._

 _*kiss emoji*_

She pockets her phone and continues to lay with Clara, and thinks about the Facebook wall. It's not that she feels left out.

It's that she wants another one. Really, really badly, too.

It's been almost a year since that sort of kind of got serious about trying. If they get to her birthday next year with no progress, it'll be time to figure out if something's going on. It would be just their luck that once they're actually thinking about getting pregnant, it doesn't happen.

She sets her phone down and snuggles up closer to Clara, who's stuffed nose is making her snore softly. Her skin is still hot and clammy, and her heart breaks for her little girl. There's really nothing she can do, after all, not with the flu. Aria, though, she can keep away from the virus for as long as possible and hope it works.

Her bladder begins to protest for what feels like the tenth time today and she groans, extracting herself and heading to the bathroom. Because her luck sucks today, they're out of toilet paper (Likely Clara's fault, since Ben's better about changing the role than Mal is) and she opens the cabinet under the sink to grab a fresh roll.

And her extra pregnancy test box stares back at her.

She's incredibly tempted to just use it, as she's done before, but she fights it. She has more important things to worry about right now than an empty uterus, like sick kids and Isle fundraisers. She grabs the roll of toilet paper and shuts the cabinet. Maybe she should put one of those God awful babyproofing things on there that she can't get off, just to stop herself. With a sigh, she flushes the toilet, washes her hands thoroughly, and returns to her and Ben's room. Clara's still out, but Ben is standing over her, kissing her head. He smiles when he sees her coming out of the bedroom and gives her a long kiss on the lips.

"You're a great mom. You know that?" he whispers, resting his forehead against hers. She smiles, but doesn't say anything. "I remember back when you were terrified about turning out like your mom."

"Um, if I remember correctly, you were pretty terrified about being a shit parent, too, so…" she replies, but she hopes he knows she's slightly teasing. His dopey smile cements this, and he wraps his arm around her. "Where's Aria?"

"She ran into the house screaming about having to pee, so I told her where I'd be when she was done. I thought you'd at least to see her before Clara kicks you out." Mal rolls her eyes, but knows he's not wrong; Clara's probably going to be pissed about not getting to watch _Anastasia_ like she'd wanted, even if she'd basically fallen asleep after she suggested.

God, she's the worst when she's sick.

"I'll miss you at dinner tonight. I was really looking forward to footsie," she says with a wink. Ben's eyes widen and he glances at Clara furitively before looking back at her.

"You can't just talk about our sex lives in front of our daughters anymore! They understand things now!"

"It's footsie! I've played it with Aria at state dinners to get her to sit still! The fact that it often leads to… other things is irrelevant," she replies. Ben smiles at her and leans in to kiss her, but someone knocks on the door.

"Daddy! You wanna play Barbies with me?" Aria calls.

"Do I!" he replies and runs to the door, stopping with his hand on the handle. "Love you."

"You, too," she says, and he runs out the door. She can hear Aria giggling as they (likely) run towards her room. Clara rolls over from her side to her back with a loud thump, and Mal bites back a laugh. Sure, maybe they were in the downs of parenting ups and downs, but they'll be going up soon. She can feel it in every fiber of her being that things are going to pick up, very, very soon.

* * *

 **A/N: I'm not going to make any updating promises; sorry! Hopefully sometime soon, because I've got some exciting things planned! Let me know what you think; reviews honestly are great motivators!**


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